Becky's Great Book Reviews It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell

Very often Lisa Jewell hits it right on the head with her novels, like in the unputdownable None of This is True. With her new one, It Could Have Been Her, she comes very close.

Jane Trevally owns a big old decrepit house in the English countryside. Having inherited it from her alcoholic and abusive parents, it doesn't hold many happy memories for her and she feels stuck in a sad life. When she finds a stray dog while walking her own four dogs, she gets sucked into a mystery that makes her feel like she has a direction in her life again.

Trying to track down the young woman last seen with the dog, Jane encounters a man, Stuart, living in the very house where Jane had a dangerous and frightening encounter when she was young. Following clues, Jane stumbles into a situation so dark and frightening that it leads to her uncovering a twisted and horrendous secret in that same house.

Jewell develops a wonderful character in Jane; and her beloved stepson Jasper teams up with Jane in the investigation, setting the stage for a possible private eye series to come. The story was good (scary clowns and all!), but it left me feeling just shy of the awe I've felt at her other thrillers. It Could Have Been Her gets three and and half stars from me.