About the Book
When attorney Elizabeth English and her husband, Paul, catch up to their energetic sons at the end of their hike, they expect to find the two boys waiting by their car. It’s been only minutes since Henry and Nick bolted ahead. But when Elizabeth and Paul emerge from the trail, Henry is gone, and all Nick says is that he saw a lone truck leaving the lot shortly after Henry went to the bathroom.
Gritty park ranger Hollis Monroe launches a massive search and teams up with a local detective to investigate the possibility that Henry was kidnapped. Elizabeth and Paul aren’t sure which is worse: their six-year-old lost in Rocky Mountain National Park or scared and bound in the back of a stranger’s pickup.
The search drives the couple to their breaking point, and secrets they have been keeping from each other are revealed for Henry’s sake. With every hour that passes, finding Henry becomes less likely, and Elizabeth becomes ferocious in her determination to make the impossible come true and find her son.
Format: ebook (304 pages) Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Publication date: 24th February 2026 Genre: Thriller
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My Review
I’m not a prolific reader of thrillers but when Karen Jewell, author of In the Garden of Sorrows which I read last year, contacted me about her latest book, a thriller written under the pen name Isabel Booth, I happily said yes to a review copy.
Then He Was Gone depicts every parent’s worst nightmare: their child goes missing. What makes it worse is that it happens in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, a vast area of rugged terrain with miles of hiking trails. If Henry wandered off and get lost, what hope is there of finding him in this vast and unforgiving wilderness? If he has been abducted, was it opportunistic or something with more behind it?
The story is told from multiple perspectives: Henry’s parents Elizabeth and Paul, Henry’s older brother Nick and Park Ranger Hollis Monroe, amongst others.
By hearing separately from Elizabeth and Paul we pick up tiny differences in their recollections of the day’s events and the first stirrings of guilt and blame. We also get an insight into the tiny cracks in their relationship that threaten to expand into fissures in the light of Henry’s disappearance. Elizabeth loves the wildness of the Rocky Mountain National Park and likes nothing better than embarking on long hikes. Paul is not so keen, preferring life in Houston. He has come to resent the time Elizabeth spends away from home pursuing her career as an attorney, most recently a long trial in Alaska. ‘The school plays and soccer games she’d missed, all the times she’d called me last minute to cover an appointment, the promises to be home by dinner then by bedtime than by midnight at the latest, all of them gone unfulfilled.’ Plus the fact it’s meant his own ambitions have had to take a back seat. There are also things they’ve kept from each other.
I loved Hollis for his calm demeanour, whilst understanding Elizabeth’s frustration and need for answers. Unfortunately, as the days go by, they’re answers she’s unlikely to want to hear. His experience tells him Henry could have not survived alone in the National Park, that this is more likely an abduction and they often don’t end well.
What really worked for me was Nick’s narrative. I found his feelings of guilt at his actions that day heartbreaking. Why oh why did he let his little brother go off alone to the toilets? Why didn’t he go to look for him? Why can’t he remember more about the truck he glimpsed leaving the parking lot? Although like all young brothers they disagreed at times, Nick recalls their shared games and Henry’s quirky ways. He can’t imagine life without his brother. Suspecting his parents aren’t telling him everything, he starts to conduct his own research on the internet, coming across wild stories and conspiracy theories. More than anything he becomes frustrated that his parents are not more active in the search for Henry. Why aren’t they out every day searching for him rather than relying on other people?
It’s actually this last accusation that provokes a frenzy of activity in Elizabeth. She goes out every day distributing pictures of Henry in the local area, she walks and re-walks the hiking trails in the National Park looking for trace of Henry until her feet are blistered and bleeding. It drives her to the brink of undoing years of sobriety. Only the arrival of her best friend Alex keeps her the right side of sanity.
But then something happens that forces everyone to rethink the entire circumstances of Henry’s disappearance (except the reader who possesses privileged information) At this point I’m not going to say anything further about how the story develops except that the tension and drama really ratchet up.
Then He Was Gone is an absorbing, skilfully crafted thriller.
My thanks to the author and Crooked Lane Books for my digital review copy.
In three words: Pacy, gripping, emotional
Try something similar: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
About the Author
Isabel Booth is a former trial attorney, now a writer. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Juris Doctorate degree When she’s not writing she loves to read, travel, and cook dinner for friends. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband.
Connect with Isabel
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