She Didn't See It Coming by Shari Lapena
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller
Read: 23rd August 2025
Published: 17th July 2025
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
She didn’t see it coming . . . And neither will you.
Bryden and Sam have it all - thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condo, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.
Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden – working from home that day - has failed to collect their daughter from daycare.
Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.
Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.
How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all?
With every minute that passes – and as questions swirl around their community – Bryden and Sam’s past seems a little less perfect, their luxury condo less safe, their friends, neighbours and relatives no longer quite so reliable . . .
MY THOUGHTS:
She didn't see it coming...but will you...?
Bryden and Sam have the perfect life. Happily married with a gorgeous three year old daughter Clara and a stunning condo in an exclusive complex. Both are successful in their well-paid jobs, have supportive friends and family, they are saving for a house and trying for a baby sibling for Clara. The perfect life for the perfect couple.
But neither of them saw what was coming...least of all Bryden.
One afternoon, Sam receives a call at the office alerting him to the fact that Bryden has failed to collect Clara from daycare. Bryden was working at home that day and left explicit instructions that no one call as she had plenty to do and needed the peace to do it in. She often thought she got more work done at home than in the office and fortunately her employers were fine with that. Sam tries and fails to reach Bryden, racing to pick up Clara himself. He arrives home with their little girl, calling out for Bryden. Her car was still in the garage downstairs, her laptop is open and in sleep mode, her mobile phone is on the table and her keys are in their usual place. All signs point to Bryden having just stepped out, soon to return.
But Bryden doesn't return. She has seemingly vanished without a trace.
Police are called and as the minutes stretch into hours then days, questions swirl within the community, their friends, family and even online. Suddenly holes are being picked in their carefully curated lives that is seemingly not so perfect after all. And nobody - not their friends, not their neighbours and not their family - appears quite so reliable.
No one is safe from the police's persistent probing as they peck at everyone's life and their alibis in their efforts to unravel the mystery of the missing woman and the truth behind what really happened to her.
There are a lot of characters to contend with but that's to keep us guessing which of them are responsible. Too few leave few surprises as it could only be one of however few there may be. Too many and we get bogged down and can't keep track of who's who. But this had the right amount, I think, to keep us on our toes.
The family: Bryden, Sam, Clara, Lizzie (the sister), Donna and Jim (the parents)
The friends: Paige, Angela (also a neighbour)
The neighbours: Angela, Tracey and Hank
The community: Derek, Alice, Kayly, Michael
The police: Jayne and Det Kilgour (and a few others in the beginning) but these two were the investigating officers
Police procedurals have a danger of being too bogged down in procedure that can have a snore-effect if it's too droning or too confusing with too many aspects. But this had the right balance of procedural and everything else that was going on to keep the pace moving quickly whilst giving us the chance to figure it out ourselves.
It was clear from the beginning who were the psychopaths of the story - but did that make them guilty? Almost everyone had a secret - but, did that make them guilty? And some were completely unlikeable - but again, did that make them guilty.
She didn't see it coming...but did you...?
In a word...yes! I wasn't as surprised as Bryden was. I had my own suspicions, for various reasons, and I kept changing my mind as to who I thought was responsible. I had three on my list - one of which was quickly eliminated (as much as I would have liked them to be the guilty party). The other two remained on my list throughout the duration until something clicked and made me look at them more closely. But with everything Shari throws at you, I could be forgiven for being indecisive about one or the other. BOTH looked equally guilty in my eyes and I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been my other suspect either.
Bryden disappears very early on in the story. I think she has just the one maybe two chapters, as well as the prologue, before she disappears and we're plunged headlong into a missing person's case that throws up all sorts of theories and red herrings. Shari's style is binge-worthy and utterly addictive from start to finish complete with cunning and tension-filled suspense on every page. Short snappy chapters filled with so much family drama alongside buried secrets, manipulative lies and dastardly deception that are paramount in any domestic thriller completing the tangled web that this thrilling tale is.
Whatever Shari has next, I'll be there with bells on!
I would like to thank #ShariLapena, #Netgalley and #RandomHouseUK for an ARC of #SheDidntSeeItComing in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
A former lawyer and English teacher, Shari now writes full time from a farm in Ontario, where she lives with her husband.
Her first thriller, The Couple Next Door, was a runaway global bestseller, selling 4 million copies worldwide. It was WHSmith’s “Book of the Year” in 2016 and the #1 Adult Fiction Title in the UK for 2017. All of Shari’s novels have been New York Times, UK Sunday Times, and Globe and Mail bestsellers. Three of her books have been Richard & Judy Book Club Picks. Her books have sold into forty territories around the world and have been optioned for film and TV.
She doesn’t want you to be able to put her books down.
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