Isabella's Not Dead by Beth Morrey

 

Forty years after playing hockey together at school, a group of women hold a reunion. However, one of their number is missing, Isabella hasn't been seen or heard from in fifteen years. Lots of rumours swirl, from living abroad to being dead. Her best friend Gwen sets out to discover what really happened to Isabelle.

I've loved Beth Morrey's style of writing since I stumbled across the wonderful Saving Missy. Her books are filled with wonderful characters and a real sense of community, stories that lighten your heart and leave you with a smile on your face. In her last newsletter, the author said that her next book, Isabella's Not Dead would be a little different, so I was very keen to see how different.

There is a definite mystery element to the storyline. The get-together weekend ends up with some of the women using an Ouija board. As the board begins to spell out a name, I.....S.....A.....B, talk among the group turns to the missing Isabella. It becomes clear that none of them have had contact with Isabella in years, although there have been possible sightings in various towns and cities, even as far away as Italy and America. Isabella has simply fallen off everyone's radar and as a result, they begin to wonder if she's dead. Isabella's best friend, Gwen, is convinced she's still alive but is a spy, hence being incommunicado, and decides to track her down.

Gwen obviously feels guilty about letting a friendship slip away. There is lots of reminiscing as Gwen tries to focus her search, deciding where would be the best place to start her mission. Gwen realises that she has a lot to do with the friendship fizzling out, life got in the way and communication dried up. Before Gwen knew it a long time had passed and she felt too embarrassed to try and reconnect so didn't bother. I'm sure lots of us will know that feeling. What makes things different this time around is that Gwen is drifting. Having lost her job she's passing the time by making mosaics to sell on Etsy but feels very aimless. Tracking down Isabella gives her a goal, a purpose in life.

Trying to track down Isabella isn't easy, responses to Gwen's queries are vague at best, adding to the air of mystery. Even among all the questions and doubt, Beth Morrey's humour is evident. Gwen is all too well aware of the pecking order in her husband's affection (Mabel the Labrador comes first) and her mother-in-law is unbelievably contrary. The mother-in-law, Morag, provides some of the best scenes in the book; an over-the-top eighty-two-year-old with money to burn and absolutely no filter, comedy gold.

Through all the ups and downs of the search I kept willing Gwen on, I was fully invested in her quest. I had a vague inkling surrounding the whole disappearance and was eager to know if I was right. By the end, Gwen finds the answers she was looking for, although not necessarily the happy-ever-after she'd assumed would come with those answers. What she does find is a new sense of purpose and the realisation that life, like friendship, requires effort. Fans of the author won't be disappointed by this slight diversion in style.

Isabella's Not Dead by Beth Morrey will be published on 19th June 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a review copy.

Author Details

Previously Creative Director at RDF Television, Beth Morrey now writes full time. Her debut novel, Saving Missy, was a Sunday Times bestseller and longlisted for the Authors' Club First Novel Award. Beth lives in London with her husband, two sons and two poodles.