It Could Have Been Her: A Novel

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone Lisa Jewell, two women's lives converge in a house containing devastating secrets that refuse to stay buried in this "deliciously dark, devilishly addictive" (Alice Feeney, bestselling author of My Husband's Wife) novel.

Jane Trevally is walking her dogs on her country estate when a small white terrier appears, alone and with no sign of the teenaged girl he’d been staying with nearby. When the teenager is reported missing, Jane offers to return the dog to his registered owner, hours away in London. Arriving at a run-down house called Thornwood in the deepest backwaters of Hampstead, she is immediately on alert—because Jane has a dark history with this house.

The man who answers the door is not the man that Jane remembers from her past. He is cagey, and claims to know nothing about the missing teenage girl. Then, through the window of the house, Jane catches a glimpse of a haunted-looking woman.

Conjuring her memories from twenty-five years ago, Jane knows this unsettling house holds the key—to the missing teenager, to her own traumatic story, and to the dark secrets of the past.

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968.

Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared, all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks.

Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over thirty languages. She lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.

"Jewell is one of the best writers of psychological thrillers, and this one spectacularly showcases her gifts for character design and plotting. We get the sense that the author was having an especially good time crafting this one, too, and very much enjoying the agonizing suspense she’s putting us through...Magnificent."
—Booklist

"With a shrewd command of the narrative, Jewell turns a chance encounter into a disturbing treatise on the past’s ability to assert itself in ways both unwelcome and unlikely . . . . [a] pitch-black spine-tingler."
—Publishers Weekly

“Deliciously dark, devilishly addictive and beautifully written. This gripping, twisted tale will keep you guessing until the end. Nobody writes like Lisa Jewell."
—Alice Feeney, New York Times bestselling author of My Husband’s Wife

“Twisty, twisted and oh so dark. Lisa Jewell once again proves herself a master of suspense.”
—Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of With a Vengeance

“Another top-notch thriller, featuring the most endearing protagonist that I can easily identify with—a nosy middle-aged woman who stumbles across the story of a missing girl and decides to investigate it herself. Alternately cozy and harrowing, it investigates the most toxic family I have ever read. Superbly written with wit and class, Lisa Jewell remains at the top of her game with this entertaining and twisty thriller.”
—Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond

“Absolutely stunning storytelling, with layer after layer deftly and tantalizingly revealed, and a denouement that is so perfect, so devilishly clever, and yet I didn’t see it coming. A true masterpiece.”
—Andrea Mara, author of All Her Fault

In Lisa Jewell’s dark and atmospheric psychological thriller, It Could Have Been Her, readers are introduced to Jane Trevally, a middle-aged, twice-divorced woman living a quiet, somewhat isolated life. Jane resides in a sprawling, crumbling English country mansion that she inherited from her parents, finding solace in the company of her four dogs. Despite her currently peaceful existence, she carries the heavy weight of a traumatic childhood and a deeply unsettling encounter from her past. Feeling adrift and contemplating her next move in life, Jane is suddenly thrust into a chilling mystery when a seemingly ordinary event disrupts her secluded country routine.

The inciting incident occurs on a quiet May afternoon when Jane discovers a small white terrier named Hugo wandering alone on her vast estate. She soon learns that Hugo had been staying nearby with a teenage girl named Daisy, who has suddenly and mysteriously vanished without a trace. Driven by a newfound sense of purpose and a desire to help, Jane decides to personally drive the lost dog back to his registered owner. Her journey takes her hours away to London, specifically to the darkest, most secluded backwaters of Hampstead Heath. However, her good deed takes a horrifying turn when she arrives at the address, a deeply run-down and foreboding house known as Thornwood.

As Jane stands before Thornwood, a terrifying realization washes over her: she has a dark history with this exact house. Twenty-five years prior, newly divorced and feeling incredibly vulnerable, Jane had agreed to accompany a strange man back to his Hampstead home. Upon entering the house and being offered a drink, she heard a blood-curdling scream followed by a heavy thud, prompting her to flee into the night and narrowly escape with her life. Now, standing on the threshold of her worst nightmare a quarter of a century later, the chilling past comes crashing directly into her present.

The man who eventually answers the door, Stuart, acts highly suspicious and defensive. He hastily claims that Hugo the terrier must have simply been stolen from the nearby Heath, a convenient story that Jane immediately doubts. Her suspicions are violently amplified when she peers through one of Thornwood's dusty windows and catches a fleeting glimpse of a fragile, haunted-looking woman. Jane knows instantly that this frightened figure is definitely not Daisy, the missing teenager. Realizing that the imposing house is still hiding dark, sinister secrets, Jane refuses to walk away and leave another woman in danger.

Channeling her inner detective, Jane resolves to uncover the truth about Daisy’s sudden disappearance, the identity of the haunted woman in the window, and the terrifying events of that fateful night twenty-five years ago. Knowing she cannot navigate this dangerous investigation alone, she reaches out to an unconventional support system. She enlists the help of her second ex-husband, Tony, and his son, Dexter, leaning on their complicated but familiar bond. To add physical protection and investigative muscle to her team, she also recruits Tobias Wilson, Tony’s formidable former security enforcer. Together, they form an unlikely but determined unit of amateur private investigators.

As Jane and her team chip away at the heavily guarded secrets of the Hampstead house, the narrative expands to include multiple perspectives. Jewell masterfully utilizes a dual timeline, weaving together the present-day search for Daisy with the dark, long-buried history of Thornwood. Through these alternating viewpoints, the story slowly peels back the layers of a deeply dysfunctional and disturbing family drama. Jane learns that the horrors of the house extend far beyond her own fleeting encounter in her youth, revealing a grim, gothic legacy of captivity, manipulation, and human depravity that has quietly spanned decades.

The tension steadily mounts as Jane pieces together the deeply unsettling connections between the missing teenager, the wandering terrier, and the house’s current inhabitants. She discovers that Stuart is fiercely guarding a terrifying reality, using the crumbling architecture of Thornwood as a literal house of horrors to conceal a multitude of sins. The investigation forces Jane to confront her own long-buried trauma, completely transforming her from a woman hiding away in her country estate into a relentless seeker of justice who will stop at nothing to drag the truth into the light.

In a gripping and highly atmospheric climax, Jane finally breaches the dark heart of Thornwood. The final chapters deliver shocking, jaw-dropping revelations as the grim fates of Daisy and the haunted woman are finally uncovered. Jane must outmaneuver the sinister forces that have controlled the house for decades, risking her own safety to expose the truth and save those trapped within its walls. While the breathless conclusion provides satisfying answers to the most pressing mysteries, it also leaves a lingering sense of ambiguity, serving as a chilling reminder that the scars of such profound trauma are never entirely erased. Ultimately, the novel serves as a twisty, haunting exploration of the evil men do, the enduring imprint it leaves behind, and the immense courage it takes to finally face the nightmares of the past.