I Found You by Lisa Jewell

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4-stars

Alice Lake

Alice Lake is a middle-aged single mother of three boisterous children and three unruly dogs. Her home is a chaotic mess, but it’s warm and sufficient. She lives by the ocean and one day sees a strange man sitting outside on the beach in the rain, cold, with no jacket and looking bewildered. Curious, Alice approaches him, offers him a jacket and learns that the man has lost his memory. He doesn’t even know his name. Against her instincts and her children’s objections, she invites the lost man to stay in her vacant rental unit. He agrees. Who is this man and could he be dangerous?

Carl and Lily Monrose

Carl and Lily Monrose have been married three weeks before he up and vanishes one day. Lily knows something is wrong when he’s more than an hour late getting home from work. Carl is never late. He can’t wait to get home to her. Lily knows virtually no one where they live in England. They’ve lived there a short time, and she’s from Kiev, Ukraine, so she has no friends or family nearby to reach out to. The police are not taking her too seriously about her husband’s supposed disappearance. They figure she’s some mail order bride, and that her husband has gone off voluntarily. Lily waits the requisite period and when a policewoman finally fills out a report on Carl she’s slightly relieved. She hands over her husband’s passport for the police to inspect and goes home. But soon afterwards she receives a phone call with information that sends her searching for answers about her missing husband.

The Ross family

Gray and Kirsty are traveling with their parents to the same old cottage they’ve been going to for years on vacation. They’re teens now and would rather not go, but they have to. Gray observes how his sister is growing up into a young woman and he feels a brotherly affection for her; the need to look out for her and protect her from men who think like he does about attractive women. He sees how men look at his sister, especially the man called Mark Tate, who winds up in close proximity to them on the beach, close enough to charm Gray and Kirsty’s parents into coming over his aunt’s sprawling home, where he’s staying, for tea and cake. The parents immediately accept the invitation and Gray is furious. Mark’s eyes seem to linger on Kirsty, and Gray doesn’t like it one bit. What does this Mark character, who’s 19, want with his 15 year old sister?

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These are the three narratives that play out in I Found You. Each storyline makes slight progress as the scenes revolve from one to the other. And then the three narratives converge into one jaw-dropping revelation.

I immediately started on I Found You after finishing my first Lisa Jewell book last week. It was so good I needed another, and this one did not disappoint. It had the right amount of suspense and kept me guessing throughout until the conclusion, when it all came together.

Between the two books, I enjoyed Then She Was Gone more than I did I Found You, because it wasn’t as raw and felt more plausible. However, you will get a well developed, excellently constructed suspense story with either one.

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