When She Was Gone

Sara Foster is a new-to-me author, and I was more than impressed with her upcoming book When She Was Gone. It grabbed me from the get-go with its well-developed characters with interesting pasts and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young nanny and her two young charges from a secluded beach in Australia.

Foster pulls readers into the lifestyles of a mega rich and oh-so-dysfunctional family whose children have gone missing.  We also get to know Rose, the mother of the abducted woman and Blackwood, the detective who is assigned to the case who is looking forward to his impending retirement' 

I loved Rose's character. She's a former British cop who has faced her own trauma and now with a PhD, she works with domestic violence survivors. She has been estranged from her daughter Lou for years but when Lou and her two young charges go missing, Rose races to Australia and inserts herself into the case - much to the chagrin of local police Detective Blackwood who has his own fair share of emotional demons to deal with. 

Told with a few POVs, this story is chilling, dark and has a colourful, flawed and very interesting array of characters - some you'll get behind and a family you'll love to hate. The slow building tension was great, but it was the detailed descriptions of the characters that made this book for me (and I appreciated how it draws readers attention to domestic abuse). There are some nail-biting scenes, but this isn't your standard twisty thriller per se since we find out the baddies' identities, but it IS bingeable and totally addictive. I eagerly look forward to reading more of Sara Foster's backlist!

Disclaimer: Thanks to Blackstone Publishing for the complimentary digital copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Sara Foster

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

First Published: April 1, 2025

Read: March 19 - 24, 2025

Book Description from GoodReads: Was she taken … or did she run?

The pulse-pounding new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of You Don’t Know Me

Rose was torn away from her daughter. Now she may be the only one who can save her.

Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote beach in Western Australia—and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care—Rose is asked to help bring Lou home.

This is the final case in DSS Mal Blackwood’s illustrious career—and there’s a lot riding on it. The missing children are heirs to the Fisher property empire, and while their multimillionaire grandfather is breathing down Blackwood’s neck, the media storm is intensifying. Faced with a deluge of evidence and accusations, Blackwood doesn’t know who he can trust.

Rose arrives in Australia intent on proving her daughter’s innocence, but how can she be sure of that when she’s no longer part of Lou’s life? Meanwhile, as Blackwood begins to expose the Fishers’ secrets, the investigation takes a dark turn. Shadows of the past gather around the Fishers—and Rose—and soon it’s clear that every hour is critical. What has happened to Lou and the children? And can Rose and Blackwood find them in time?