I am still reeling from Lisa Jewell’s previous novel, DON’T LET HIM IN. It was the most suspenseful, complex and seriously dark work she has ever produced, which is really saying something.

So the bar for Jewell was significantly raised for me, and my hopes were high for her latest release, IT COULD HAVE BEEN HER. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed. What continued to affect me as I was reading the book was the quaint, almost pretty cover that features what appears to be a door or a wall surrounded by vines and flowers. It could have been the cover of a typical “tea cozy”-style murder mystery, which stands in stark contrast to this story’s disturbing subject matter.

"[Jewell] now has produced consecutive novels that demonstrate the depths to which she will go in order to depict human depravity within the framework of a titillating mystery/thriller. I cannot wait for more."

In the brief prologue, which is set in 2005, a girl is in an unbelievably bad place with some truly awful people in the moments before the worst happens to her. Jumping ahead to 2026, we are introduced to Jane Trevally, who innocently finds a stray dog that does not look like he came from the streets. He appears to be a West Highland terrier, and Jane not only takes him in but begins to scour the neighborhood in hopes of tracking down his owner. Instead, she will open the door to a baffling mystery.

A local veterinarian provides Jane with an address in Hampstead. When she arrives at the run-down house called Thornwood, she gets the sense that she has been there before. It may very well be the same place from which she narrowly escaped decades earlier, fearing she was in grave danger of the inhabitants. The man who opens the door does not look familiar to her, but he recognizes the dog as his own and takes him back.

However, Jane learns that the real owner is a young woman named Rose White and is nowhere to be found. She decides to play full-on private detective as she is determined to unlock Rose’s background and her connection to Thornwood. By doing so, she feels that she finally might be able to get answers to the darkest experience of her life if she dares to learn the truth. What Jane slowly begins to unearth is more eye-opening and disturbing than she ever could have imagined. 

Just when you think Lisa Jewell will pull back and present a happy resolution, you are smacked in the face with another moment of unimaginable horror that represents the bleakest side of humanity. She now has produced consecutive novels that demonstrate the depths to which she will go in order to depict human depravity within the framework of a titillating mystery/thriller. I cannot wait for more.