Hello Everyone,
Book Details
| Name | She Didn't See It Coming |
|---|---|
| Author | Shari Lapena |
| Published | July 15, 2025 |
| Genres | Thriller, Mystery, Crime-Fiction, Psychological-Thriller |
This is a review of the book I've read this week is this one. It's called She Didn't See It Coming by author Sharie Lepina. It was published as a hardback here in the United Kingdom by Banttom on the 17th of July, 2025. It's the author's ninth book. I suppose the top-level description is a good suburban psycho thriller.
Her previous book, What Have You Done?, I enjoyed reading. Less of the waffle, Cliff. What's this one about?.
Story & Characters
The central character is called Bride Frost. She's married to Sam Frost. Bride and Sam, with their daughter Claraara, who's three, live in Albany, New York. Bride is an accountant. She works with a firm downtown. Sam works as a portfolio manager for a company called Kleinberg Wealth. So, he's in investment banking, that sort of thing.
They live quite a nice life. They live in a luxury condo. Claraara goes to daycare while Bride and Sam work. Bride sometimes works from home. The book kicks off with Bride in a bit of a two and eight because she's late to pick Claraara up from daycare. Traffic's heavy, and then she has a minor accident, a minor shunt. We will find later on in the book that there's a link to the guy that she has the minor shunt with.
So, things are carrying on in a normal vein. Bride and Sam seem very happy together. Claraara's a little bit of a nervous child but seems to enjoy going to daycare. She plays with the last couple of doors down in their condominium block called Savannah, whose mom Angela Bride knows. So, they lead a fairly happy, well-adjusted life. They're reasonably well off. They've both got well-paid jobs.
Until one day, Sam is at his office, and he gets a call from the daycare center saying, "Bride hasn't come to pick Claraara up. She was due a while back. Anything going on?" And Sam says, "Well, she's working from home today. I know she is because I clearly saw her before I came to work. She's probably just stuck in traffic. No need to worry. If you don't hear from her in the next half hour, let me know, and I'll come and pick Claraara up."
So, time goes by, and Sam’s a little bit worried. He thought, she's not answering my texts, and normally, you know, we text each other regularly. Normally, she gets back to me. So, he's a little bit worried, but she's probably just stuck in traffic, and the last thing she needs is to be answering texts. Half an hour goes by, no sign of Bride. So, Sam leaves work, goes to pick Claraara up from the daycare center, and he's a little bit worried.
He gets back home and thinks, "Oh, must be okay." They've got an underground car park, sees Bride's car in the underground car park. Goes up to their apartment, opens up, and Bride's laptop is on the table. Her cell phone is next to it. Her car keys are where they normally are in the hall, but there's no sign of Bride. He checks the flat and checks everywhere. He thinks, "What's going on here? This doesn't seem right. You know, she wouldn't just get up and leave."
He checks with a neighbor, Angela, who very often has Claraara. She hasn't seen her, so he thinks, well, better call the police. That's when we're introduced to Detective Jane Salter. She immediately asks Sam the obvious questions, you know, is Bride in good health? Do you have a good relationship? Is there any reason why she would just disappear? And the answer to that is no. We have a great relationship. She's healthy. There's no reason why she'd want to disappear.
So, all of a sudden, this becomes an important missing person's case. Detective Jane Salter is a well-written character. We see her troubles. She's got a boyfriend, Michael, who's an academic, and their dates tend to get interrupted by cases coming up. We see the trials that she has, and it's a very well-written character. It wouldn't surprise me if we saw Detective Jane in another book, but that's by the by.
This suddenly becomes a missing person's tale. Bride’s parents have moved to Florida. Her sister Lizzy works as a nurse. Lizzy calls her parents, so they're flying up from Florida straight away. She tells Paige. Paige Mason is one of Bride's great friends. They're besties. So, all of a sudden, we've got a whole lot of people that are worried about what on earth has happened to Bride, including, of course, her three-year-old daughter, who's perplexed because she doesn't know where her mom is.
And thus, that's basically the tale. We know that the top-level story is that these are a devoted couple. They’ve got good jobs, they've got no money worries, they get on well with their neighbors, and we very soon find that some of these people, in fact, nearly all of them, are hiding secrets. Jane, the detective, gradually pulls the layers away, and we find out that all is not well with both Bride and Sam and also other people in their environment.
So, it's a good suburban psycho thriller, 383 pages. Starts off with a bit of a mystery. The end, I guess, is a little bit of an anti-climax, but there is a nice little cliffhanger involved where some of the peripheral people are involved, i.e., the guy involved in the initial car crash, where it looks like Jane's boyfriend, Michael, may well be in a potentially dangerous situation.
Final Verdict
I enjoyed the book. Good read. Definitely give it seven out of ten. As I said, top-level good suburban psycho thriller. Starts with a mystery. We gradually see the various layers pulled away as secrets are revealed and lots of twists and turns. Great holiday read. As I said, I give it 7 out of 10. Thanks.
