It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell

 

When Jane finds a stray dog near her home, she does the neighbourly thing and returns it to its owner. As she's handing the dog over, she gets a strange feeling. Learning later on that the young woman who was seen with the dog has disappeared, Jane sets out to track her down.

Right from the beginning, It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell has you unsettled as a young woman flees a house back in 2005. The story then jumps to the current day, and we meet Jane, who finds a dog wandering close to her home. When she returns the dog to its owner, not only does she feel as if he is acting suspiciously, but we also discover that Jane was the young woman at the start of the book, and this is the very same house she ran from.

Returning home, Jane learns that the dog was seen locally with a young woman who has now gone missing. Concerned about the welfare of the young woman, and still feeling unnerved by her encounter with the man, Jane decides to investigate. I really liked Jane. An unconventional and, at times, traumatic childhood has meant that she is practical and direct. She's also empathetic, intelligent and dogged, refusing to give up when she appears to meet a dead-end.

There are times when the story switches to the perspective of others, at different time periods over the last thirty years. It is these parts of the narrative that really make you unsettled. Some sections offer us an insight into the family in the house, none of whom come across as likeable. However, I did have sympathy for some of them because of the power dynamic within the household. We also get an insight into Stuart, the suspicious man who answered the door when Jane returned the dog. Once again, his behaviour has you deeply concerned about the role he is playing.

As Jane continues to dig into the disappearance of the young woman and the story unfolds, I was shocked. For fans of crime fiction, the main storyline itself isn't particularly unusual; what I was surprised at was the assumptions I made. As the conclusion approached, I found my opinions about some of the characters changing completely, and by the end, when the shocking events were finally revealed, I was stunned.

It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell will be published on 2nd July 2026 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Century for a review copy.

Author Details

Lisa Jewell's first novel, Ralph’s Party, was published in 1999 and was the best-selling debut novel of the year. Since then she has published another twenty-three novels, most lately a number of dark psychological thrillers, including Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs and None of This is True. Lisa is a number one New York Times and Sunday Times author who has sold over ten million books worldwide and been published in more than thirty languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two daughters, Daisy, a Romanian rescue dog, and a mad orange cat called Ivy.