Love a great psychological thriller! THis is about every mother's worst nightmare. The book has several great characters that I will be thinking about for awhile! I will be reading more from this author!

Could not put this book down. Pulled me in right away and kept me guessing. The ups and downs throughout the book kept me up at night. Highly recommend

I would have rated this much higher but the ending was outright ridiculous. The story and the writing I actually enjoyed up until near the end as the mystery finally unfolded. I was really disappointed - I would rather have had a blah ending than one that left me irritated at it's conclusion.

WHAT SHE KNEW by Gilly Macmillan is a fast-paced and gripping crime drama/psychological thriller that kept me riveted to the pages from beginning to end. It is a story of every parent’s worst nightmare – their child going missing. Rachel Jenner is a recently divorced mother caring for her eight-year-old son, Ben. The divorce has been hard on both of them, but they have recently settled into a comfortable routine and things seem to be looking up. Everything changes one Sunday afternoon when Rachel and Ben are walking their dog in the woods near their home. Ben runs ahead with the dog to a swing, but when Rachel arrives there, he is nowhere to be found. After a frantic search by Rachel and others in the park, the police are called in and search parties are mobilized. DI Jim Clemo is the lead detective on the case. He is committed to finding Ben and bringing him home safely, but the minimal clues in the case are leading him and the team to conflicting suspects. Time is running out as days pass by without locating Ben. The media are flinging suspicions in every direction including at Rachel herself. Is Ben still alive? Is anyone telling the truth? Who can be trusted? Told from Rachel and Jim’s points of view a year later, you can feel their vivid emotions and the panic that ensued from Ben’s disappearance. I was completely engrossed in the story with its twists and turns and all the shocking revelations. WHAT SHE KNEW is a suspenseful and gripping novel and I highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book provided through Book Club Girl on Facebook.

I typically stay away from child abduction novels but decided to give this one a chance. I'm so glad I did! The middle was a little bit slow but it became pretty intense again soon enough. This is my first time reading this author but I'll definitely be reading more.

This was a really tough book for me to read due to the subject matter of a lost child. It truly is every parent’s worst nightmare to conceive of a missing child, but still I kept reading because I know Gilly’s books are very well-received.
I did find the writing to be easy to follow and engaging, and I was guessing through several parts of the book.

A good thriller that kept me guessing! I couldn't put it down until I got to the end. I can't wait to read more from Gilly MacMillan.

A mother’s worst nightmare told from the mother’s and investigating officer’s perspectives. Who did it? What will happen? I recommend reading this book to find out.

Eight year old Ben goes missing in the woods while he's out for a walk with his mom and asks to run ahead. Easy enough plot.

The plot quickly gets tangled up with extreme (unlikely) backstories for most of the main adult characters. I guess these are all thrown in to be red herrings. Any good mystery will have some, but there were so many that it just made it way too far fetched. Also, a lot of these story lines felt forced into the story and/or were never really satisfactorily explored. It also bugs me when books throw in a long epilogue that resolves all the unanswered questions. Whenever this happens, it feels like the author just had enough with the book and wanted to be done.

Perhaps that is a bit of a harsh review for a three star book. I did enjoy reading it. I did want to keep turning pages to see how it would end. If you're in the mood to read a mystery that you don't have to think too hard about, this may be your book.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the free digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Received access to egalley from the publisher, post-publication. This was an awesome thriller, perfect for stay-at-home orders during pandemic. I have nothing in common with these characters and the situation of child abduction but the author made me care about them and the outcome very much. Police procedurals are some of my favorite mysteries. Reminded me a lot of Tana French novels. Highly recommended.

Thank you NetGalley and BookClub Girl for the download of this book. I found it well written, but somewhat slow. I am interested in reading more from this author. 3 1/2 stars

I enjoyed this book. The pacing was great, the alternating chapters between the mother and the detective kept the tension going.

Three stars! Thank you to William Morrow, Netgalley and Book Club Girls for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion. I liked the story and did not guess the end until the characters revealed it. I just was not a huge fan of the timeline swapping and the interspersed police psychologist transcripts. I know they were supposed to add to the story line but I just was not into it. Overall an interesting story.

I had never read anything by this author, so I was anxious to dive in! The topic is every mother’s worst nightmare...your child disappears from almost under your nose, time is ticking by, and seemingly everyone thinks you “did it”. The characters are so well described, it’s easy to visualize the actions, feelings, and even physical appearances of each one, and the suspense of not knowing what happened to Ben keeps you wanting more. Although I was a bit disappointed with the ending, overall I think it was a solid storyline and I would definitely be willing to read other books by Gilly Macmillan.

I love this genre and after reading What She Knew, I plan to read all of Gilly Macmillan's books. Told in two voices, I felt that I was "living" the story and was right there. Can't wait to read more books by this author.

This book was a psychological thriller that was somewhat slow. The plot was ok, but thrillers about missing children are often sad and so predictable. The writing was ok. I don't always like it but the alternating first person in chapters seems to be popular. Sometimes it is confusing and you have to double-check who's talking, but it is generally ok. The book is sometimes wordy in that there is quite a bit of detail that was not germane to the story. wwThe ending was disappointing and really made me feel that I wasted my timing hanging in there to the end.

This is a great thriller about a mother's race to find her missing son.
The writing was perfectly paced with quite a few twists. The characters were complex and flawed.
Gilly Macmillan really knows how to write a thriller.
This one kept me up flipping pages until the very end!

This book is SO well-written! I am positively on the edge of my seat, chewing all ten fingernails, unable to put it down. I’m at 70 percent, but just had to post a rousing “READ THIS ONE ASAP!” A summer sizzler, for your beach blanket.

Updated review:

Wow, Gilly Macmillan knocked it out of the park on the first try, with “What She Knew.” This story was so tightly sprung with twists, and fake-outs and traps. Each character was deeply flawed and human. I loved the format of quick chapters strung together by emails and study excerpts and news headlines. Everything about this book was great! I can’t wait to read more of Macmillan’s work.

I enjoyed this story. A mother, Rachel and her son, Ben are walking in the woods, he asks to run ahead to the swings and that is the last she sees of him. The story alternates between her and the policeman in charge of the case. Good look at police procedures in child abduction case. Several suspects involved. The story did seem to slow down a bit, but then picked up the pace.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of this book for review.

I was completely unfamiliar with this author and had no idea what to expect, but I'm pleased to say I will definitely look for the next book in this series. It's interesting that this series revolves around Jim Clemo. Yes, he's the lead detective on the case, but the story features him messing up more than getting it right, while the missing boy's mother, Rachel, proves to have better instincts. Her detective story naturally ends with this book, though, and Clemo's story, told here through his therapy appointments stemming from the case, show him to be an interesting character, a solid cop, and a man of integrity. Despite his failings, I'm in his corner and want very much to follow his career as he grows as a person.

The juxtaposition of the two POV narratives--three if you count Clemo's therapist--beautifully portrayed the theme of perception of character. It came through in pretty much every relationship in the book The title irritated the heck out of me until I figured out what it meant, and in this context it's even more meaningful because for so much of the book, everybody was constantly making assumptions--many of them completely reasonable-- about other characters without actually knowing anything. It's a good reminder to the reader to challenge their own assumptions, but it's so pervasive and consistent that it doesn't spoil the ending. It also makes me eager to get to know Clemo's colleagues in later books, as I anticipate Macmillan will do a bang-up job fleshing them out.

I feel like Macmillan did a lot of research on both sides of this story, and she integrated it well. I especially liked her depiction of the losing situation parents are in. You're a helicopter parent until you let your vigilance slip for even a second, and suddenly you're a neglectful parent who doesn't deserve to have a child. Rachel provided a powerful voice throughout this book, and it's one that needs to be heard by parents and those who would judge them.