No one knows

Aubrey Hamilton's husband, Josh, disappeared five years ago. She was initially accused of murdering him, but without a body, there was no proof. Josh's mom declares her son legally dead, and suddenly the grief consumes Aubrey again. After finally deciding to go on with her life, she begins to suspect that she is being watched. As in The Girl on the Train, to which this novel inevitably will be compared, the story line jumps back and forth in time as the reader becomes enthralled with Aubrey and her life while also desperate to learn answers. The payoff succeeds in surprising, but some readers may find the author guilty of unnecessary manipulation.--Ayers, Jeff Copyright 2016 Booklist

Schnaubelt's performance as Aubrey Hamilton, the dicey heroine of Ellison's standalone thriller, is entirely convincing. Aubrey bemoans the loss of her husband, Josh, who is declared legally dead at the start of the Nashville-set story. Schnaubelt's portrayal makes us feel the character's unbearable loss, loneliness, panic, and escalating anger as the story folds and unfolds, the current scenes intertwined with flashbacks to the days of her husband's disappearance five years earlier. We're given to understand that no one, including Aubrey, knows Josh's whereabouts. Voice actor Podehl soon pulls us into Josh's bouts of fear, jealousy, anguish, and treachery as Josh tries to extricate himself from a dangerous situation of his own making. Though the listener is sometimes bemused by tone changes and awkward plot complications, the story is an entertaining brainteaser with a surprising ending. A S&S/Gallery hardcover. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A woman begins to question everything she thought she knew when signs indicate that her husband, recently declared officially dead, is actually alive. For five years, Aubrey Hamilton has struggled to reconcile the facts about the last time she saw her husband, Josh, with his disappearance. They were a happy couple, childhood sweethearts despite his disapproving mother, and everything seemed fine when they parted ways at a friend's bachelor party. And then Josh was gone. He left behind only a sinister puddle of blood at their Nashville home, which led Aubrey to be tried for his murderthough she was acquitted, since it's hard to convict without a corpse. Now he's been declared legally dead, and Aubreyback at her job at a Montessori school and, like so many crime-fiction heroines, trying to literally run away from her past by, um, runningis dolefully reconciled to the fact that her husband is gone. She doesn't even want the $5 million life insurance policy he took out, naming her as his beneficiary. (The amount of that possible payout is so large that readers' ears should perk up.) Then she meets Chase Boden, a man with an uncanny resemblance to Josh, from his mannerisms to the way he walks, and Aubrey starts to wonder if Josh not only wasn't who he seemed to be, but might actually be alive. Ellison (What Lies Behind, 2015, etc.) goes to great lengths to explore the story from multiple points of view, which both expands the complex universe she's built and, unfortunately, deflates the suspense by spelling out that which the reader would rather deduce. The unreliable female narrator is all the rage, and Aubrey Hamilton is up there with the slipperiest of them all. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Aubrey Hamilton's husband, Josh, disappeared five years ago. She was initially accused of murdering him, but without a body, there was no proof. Josh's mom declares her son legally dead, and suddenly the grief consumes Aubrey again. After finally deciding to go on with her life, she begins to suspect that she is being watched. As in The Girl on the Train, to which this novel inevitably will be compared, the story line jumps back and forth in time as the reader becomes enthralled with Aubrey and her life while also desperate to learn answers. The payoff succeeds in surprising, but some readers may find the author guilty of unnecessary manipulation. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

At the start of this riveting Nashville-set standalone from bestseller Ellison (What Lies Behind), Aubrey Hamilton's husband, Josh, is declared legally dead. The past five years have been hell for Aubrey; not only did she lose the love of her life, but she was tried in connection with his disappearance, and despite being acquitted, everyone assumes she's guilty. Aubrey finally resigns herself to moving on, but then meets a man who's strongly reminiscent of Josh—and, shortly thereafter, she receives evidence suggesting her husband wasn't the man she thought he was. What follows is a skillfully plotted story that's equal parts mystery, psychological thriller, and cautionary tale. Comparisons to Gone Girl are inevitable; the setup and early beats are similar, and readers will spend much of the book questioning Aubrey's reliability as a narrator. Ellison's twists are fresh, though, and the novel's action-packed conclusion will shock, even if it doesn't fully satisfy. Artful and evocative prose complements the fully fleshed and realistically flawed characters. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Mar.)