It Could Have Been Her

It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell is a very highly recommended investigative domestic thriller which all starts with a lost dog and a missing woman. Jane Trevally from Jewell’s 2025 thriller, Don’t Let Him In, returns to unofficially investigate.

Jane Trevally, twice divorced and 55 years-old, is walking her four dogs on her deteriorating country estate she can't afford to repair when a small white terrier appears, alone and with no sign of an owner. She takes the dog to her vet to read the chip and then offers to return the dog named Hugo to his owners in London. When she arrives at the home in Hampstead, she immediately recognizes it as the home where she had a terrifying encounter twenty-five years earlier that she just show more managed to escape. Stuart Tucker, the man who answered the door, did seem dubious, however Hugo was happy to see him and he obviously wasn't the man she encountered years ago.

Then she learns that a girl, Rose White, disappeared from an Airbnb near her home, leaving everything behind, and she had Hugo with her there. Returning to talk to Stuart about this, he claims to not know Rose. Along with the help of her stepson, Dexter Lombardi, Jane decides to do some amateur sleuthing into the missing girl and the family living at the house called Thornwood in the Vale of Health, Hampstead, as she is positive something is wrong there.

With excellent writing, an interesting plot, top-notch pacing, and plenty of suspense, It Could Have Been Her represents another excellent, twisty thriller from Jewell which held my complete attention throughout. The narrative is mainly told through Jane's current day point-of view, along with chapters from Stuart nine years ago, and some from a young Jessamine Black whose family owns the home. The chapters from the past put together tell a dark and dysfunctional story of the residents of the house, their trauma and buried secrets. Clearly something is very wrong at that house.

I loved the character of Jane who decides with great determination to investigate the missing girl and with that, the inhabitants of Thornwood. It combines the best of a cozy mystery with a thriller. I love that she is thinking about becoming a private investigator because she enjoys looking into mysteries and uncovering clues. She also has plenty of connections to help her in her inquiry. Jane also has plenty of buried trauma in her own life and the case brings some of her past up. I also like her stepson Dexter who is all in on joining her in being a PI. Hopefully we'll see this duo on another case.

The character of Stuart also evolves during the novel. He starts out feeling a little creepy, but soon it becomes clear that he is at heart a good man in his own way. When he first moves in with Jessamine Black, her mother Annie, and her daughter Daisy, he doesn't realize what he's getting in to and quickly becomes manipulated by them and a servant to them. Daisy is a likable character who readers will mainly know as a teen in the novel. There is also a mainly missing brother who left home early to become a clown.

It Could Have Been Her is an excellent selection for everyone who enjoy dark, twisty investigative thrillers. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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Jane Trevally, in her fifties, two ex husbands and five step children. She lives in a rambling house with her four dogs and feels she is at a crossroads in her life. Walking in the woods Jane comes across a little dog who is lost. Finding the owner isn't a simple as it seems and comes with a big mystery.

I have read quite a few books by Lisa Jewell and have yet to come across one that I didn't enjoy. I really enjoyed this classic thriller by the author.

Jane is a side character from the author's previous book Don't Let Him In. This book has really nothing to do the plot of the previous book so can be read without reading the other book.

The story has a lot of character pov and timelines. There are also the usual twists and turns and show more everything does come together at the end. I was really enjoying this story and was invested until the end. There should be a lot of trigger warnings with this book.

The story certainly had some tense moments and did keep me on my toes. My only niggle is that ending was a little rushed with the reveals.

I was lucky enough to get an arc of this book so thank you to the publisher via Netgalley. show less

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was a bit of an odd one for me. I haven't read many of Jewell's books. I read None of This is True last year and enjoyed it. I enjoyed this one too but it wasn't quite what I expected from the summary.

first things, while this is not the fault of the book itself, I do not really enjoy mysteries with split timelines. For some reason it doesn't really work for me. I think the past chapters in this book are written quite compellingly, but I just prefer a bit more linear story. I think if that isn't a holdup for you, off the bat you may enjoy this more than I did.

Plot-wise, there is a lot happening in this book. The central conceit is show more that Jane, our lead, finds a dog on the grounds of her childhood home. When she finds the owner and returns the dog, she finds out that he belongs to someone who lives in the house that Jane had a somewhat traumatic encounter at years before. When she finds out that the dog was traveling with a young woman and not the man at the house, she decides to investigate what happened to the girl.

I feel like even my attempt to summarize it is a bit confusing. The first 50% or so of this book was a bit hard to get through for that reason. There was a lot going on with the plot, a lot of characters to keep track of, the two timelines to keep straight and that was a bit hard. Every once in a while, we'd get a new POV character and I would not be able to remember who they were and how they related to the story. I think a slightly tighter focus could have really helped keep my interest on the overall story. At one point, I basically forgot what mystery we were even trying to solve because of everything else that was happening. It was just a bit too much for a book of this length.

The characters themselves are also a bit of a mixed bag. I liked Jane as a lead in terms of her personality. She cares a lot about her somewhat eclectic extended family, particularly her gaggle of stepkids. As far as amateur detectives go, she's pretty good and didn't do anything that overly annoyed me. However, I'm not sure I really understood her motivation. She's never had to work and she notes one time helping someone solve a problem was enjoyable for her and so she wanted to pursue being a private detective. It's not a bad motivation, but it's a little underexplored given that it has to drive the whole book basically.

Not fully understanding characters and their motivations was an issue throughout the book for me. Stuart, one of our main characters in the past timeline, was the main example of this for me. I felt like I did not understand a single thing about him or his actions. He was a complete mystery to me, which is a bit of an issue given that he's a central character. There are so many moving pieces and I think character development got sacrificed to make everything fit.

I would also say that aside from Jane (mostly) and Dexter, a stepkid of hers, most of the characters in this book are exceptionally unlikable. I don't have any issue with this; I enjoy reading about unlikable characters, but if you know that you don't, this is definitely not a book for you. The overall tone of the book is quite dark and I think that's part of why the characters are written the way they are but it's something to know going in.

I found the plot interesting, particularly after we hit the 50% mark, but not very twisty or surprising. I think I basically saw every twist coming. They're pretty well telegraphed. I don't really have an issue with this - if the writing is good and the mystery is compelling, I don't think there always needs to be a super shocking twist. But, if you do want that, I think you'll probably be disappointed. This is more of a plodding, dark mystery rather than a twisty, exciting thriller.

I have a couple more books by this author on my TBR and this book certainly won't stop me from picking them up. However, this wasn't amazing and definitely had some issues. While this was a compelling read and I read it quickly, I think a few changes would have made it even better. show less

What does this mean, “It could have been her?” You’ll see. I felt like at times I was inside a horror film with a house filled with darkness.

The first half was slow for me as I was putting all the pieces together. Jane was 19 when her parents died of alcohol abuse. Ten years later, her brother died from drugs and a stroke. At 55, she was left with the family home in a good area that needed a great deal of work and a good spiritual cleansing. She didn’t do either.

She had other things on her mind that all started when she was walking her four dogs and found a lost white terrier in a wooded area nearby. She managed to find the owner who lived farther out in London – a house that she remembered when she was divorced at 29, show more without job prospects.

It was a frightening memory when a man at a bar tried to trick her by claiming she could be his children’s nanny. She went to his home and knew she was in trouble when he handed her a cocktail. Fortunately, she escaped.

This was the same house where many years later, she dropped off the terrier dog with tags from its owner. She then learned that a young girl, who was renting a place nearby, was now missing. Strangely, this girl had same terrier that was lost in the woods. Jane questioned the connections and started plunging into the world of being a private investigator. It was like one of those true crime podcasts where you are curious about the story but afraid of what will happen next.

There were two timelines from Jane’s POV now and Stuart who lived in the dark house ten years earlier. Jane with the help of others contacted people that were tied to the family living in the house. It made me despise some of the emotional bullying within this dismal place.

There was the repeating of information from time to time which may have made the book feel longer. Yet, it was like a strange realization when all the connections culminated at the end with a dramatic effect. It was a bad idea to read late at night and try to sleep afterwards thinking about how real this seemed.

My thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC with an expected release date of June 23, 2026. The views I share are my own. show less

Jane Trevally encounters a small white dog one afternoon and discovers that its owner resides deep in Hampstead outside of London. Upon returning the dog to the strange man who lives there, she recalls once being at that house in a very dangerous situation. She later learns that the dog accompanied a young woman staying near where Jane lives and the woman has disappeared. Fancying herself a private investigator, she embarks on a quest to find the missing woman, unraveling damning secrets along the way

This is a dark and twisted tale filled with dysfunctional individuals and relationships. There is a house of horrors, life long scars inflicted upon victims of trauma, and even the presence of an evil clown.

Jewell’s storytelling is show more masterful, weaving an intricate plot amidst a diverse cast of characters The timeline shifts between the present and different years in the past, and the narrative alternates between various characters’ perspectives. Due to the multi-generational nature of the characters, readers may find it helpful to jot down a brief family tree for reference to keep track of names and relationships.

Fans of Jewell’s writing may recognize Jane as a minor character introduced in the author’s Don’t Let Him In. As Jane seems interested in becoming a private investigator with her step son, Dexter as an assistant, could this be the beginning of new series?

Thanks to @NetGalley and @AtriaBooks for the DRC. show less