I have read one other book by Joy Fielding “Someone is Watching” which I have also reviewed on this blog.
She’s Not There is a 2016 psychological thriller in the same vein. I love reading these sorts of books when I’m stressed and just need an easy page turner to help me get to sleep. Ironic really given the subject matter but somehow it works for me.
Caroline and Hunter Shipley travel to Mexico with their two young children Michelle and Samantha to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Hunter misguidedly surprises Caroline by inviting their close friends and family to join them. On the final evening, the resort botches the babysitter booking and the couple must decide whether to attend their own anniversary dinner while leaving their children unattended in the hotel room.
The parallels to the Madeleine McCann case are obvious and the title of the novel already gives away what happens. Samantha is taken and the family’s lives fall apart.
Unlike the true life tragedy, there is a need for a resolution to draw up the story arc. I found the resolution too implausible to make it satisfying. However, the bulk of the narrative was still good escapism and I may not have found it so much so if it had been more realistic.
The fictional story also raised some points about the McCann case that I had not really considered. How are the parents’ work lives, social lives and relationships with their extended families impacted by recriminations? What is the interplay between external condemnation and personal guilt and grief?
Do not read this book if you are haunted by fears of lost children. However, for those of us who assume it is too unlikely to worry about, it was engaging enough.
