When Phoebe Locklear lands from Botswana after losing the only mother she knew, she's desperate to make contact with her 'real' mother, Kay Duncan. And she believes she has connected, only to have everything turned upside down when the DNA tests establishes she not the kidnapped 'Maya Duncan' after all. What follows is Phoebe's determined pursuit of the truth to find out who she really is? Did her 'foster' mother, Roz lie to her. But how come she has memories of her 'real' mother and step father? As she begins to uncover layer upon layer of this story, she has to face the death of Kay and Kay's bandmate, and feel the guilt that she indirectly caused their deaths.

The author takes us on a real thriller of a ride which includes blackmail, murder, deceit, a cult with a crazy leader and Phoebe herself being the victim of a murder attempt.

The book was unputdownable! Just when you thought you'd figured out the plot there was another twist. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from Sam Hepburn and will be looking out for more of her writing.

Title: Gone Before
Author: Sam Hepburn
PUBLICATION DAY: Oct 12th 2020

Description:

‘My name is Phoebe Locklear. I think I’m your daughter.’

I rehearse the words as I walk up the path, clutching a faded old photograph of a little girl with thick dark hair.

When I knock, the door opens, and there she is: the woman I believe is my mother. The woman whose five-year-old daughter disappeared fifteen years ago.

Had I known what would happen next, would I have knocked on that door? Would I take back the lives I’ve destroyed?

But now that I’ve started, there’s no going back. I can’t stop until I find out who I really am.

Even if the truth could kill me.

Twisty, addictive and utterly unputdownable, Gone Before asks what happens when your whole life turns out to be a lie. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Gone Girl and The Silent Patient.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'Gone Before' by Sam Hepburn.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 12th October 2020

This is the first book that I have read by this author.

I was originally drawn to this book by its intriguing colourful cover and interesting sounding blurb. The fact that it states on Amazon that the book is perfect for fans of Mark Edwards also drew me in as I'm a big fan of his books. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).

This novel consists of a 35 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is written in first person perspective with the protagonist being Phoebe/Maya. I enjoy books written in first person perspective as as long as they are well written it makes you feel that you are being spoken to by the protagonist and it can create more of a bond between yourselves and them.

This book is based in Provence, France 🇫🇷 and London 🇬🇧.I always enjoy when books are set in the UK as I'm from Wales and have sometimes visited areas mentioned in the book. This makes it easier to picture where the scenes are set at times.

Wow!!! Well, Well, Well where to even start on this one???

An extremely well written book which reads very smoothly and has fantastic descriptions which really grip your imagination. I loved the newspaper headlines included to show the 'worlds' opinion on what was going on and thought they were placed perfectly and helped to see the bigger picture. I also enjoyed the flashbacks throughout that were well placed and again helped with the bigger picture.

The storyline itself was quite unique and was absolutely gripping!! It kept me up until I could barely keep my eyes open and even then only had to call it a night knowing my kids would wake up in a few hours!!! Very fast paced and action packed it is rammed full with twists, turns, deceit, red herrings, love, loss, mystery and I could go on, everything you want in a psychological crime thriller. A true page turner that kept me guessing until the unexpected twist at the end!!

The characters were all perfect for the storyline and I loved Phoebe/Maya's personality and strength, can't beat a strong female lead in a book!! They all seemed to have a mystery about them that made you continuously question myself while drawing me in. This book would make an absolutely gripping movie and I would love to read more about what happens next!! I am looking forward to reading more of this very talented authors books!!

Overall an absolutely gripping psychological thriller which will keep you up late at night turning the pages and biting your nails!!!

Genres covered include Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction and Psychological Fiction.

I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as ANYONE looking for a good read with a fantastic twist you won't see coming.

312 pages.

This book is 99p to purchase on kindle via Amazon or free on kindle unlimited which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5/5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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Author Bio:

Sam Hepburn read modern languages at Cambridge University and, after a brief spell in advertising, joined the BBC as a General Trainee. She worked as a documentary maker for twenty years and was one of the commissioners for the launch of BBC Four. Since then, she has written several books, including psychological thrillers Gone Before and Her Perfect Life, and novels for young adults and children. She won the 2017 CWA Margery Allingham Short Story award and has been nominated for several other prestigious prizes, including the CILIP Carnegie Medal for her YA thrillers.

Sam has worked and travelled widely in Africa and the Middle East, and is a trustee of the Kenyan’s children’s charity, I Afrika. She now lives in London with her husband and children.

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sam_Osman_Books

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/SamHepburnAuthor

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: https://geni.us/B08CW5398ZSocial

Apple: http://ow.ly/vZFe50AxCta

Kobo: http://ow.ly/HCyG50AxCru

Google: http://ow.ly/qFIi50AxCv4

My first by this author and it grabbed me right out of the gate. There are lots of twists and turns. Dense and tightly written, it was a good read.

A good psychological thriller that has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.

The plot was well thought out and everything was neatly tied up.

Will look out for other books from this author.

Phoebe Locklear needs to find out who she is. She knocks on the door of a woman she believes is her mother.
I read this in one sitting as I needed to know too. The book was well-plotted and fast-paced. I enjoyed Phoebe's character. She was a very strong person who just wanted to find out what happened so many years before. There were lots of twists and turns which keep me reading to the very end. I enjoyed Sam Hepburn's writing and look forward to reading her other books. I would highly recommend this book to those who love psychological thrillers. Thanks to Bookcoulture and NetGalley for suppling me with a free copy for an honest review.

This is a great psychological thriller.
Phoebe tracks down her real mum and shocks her when she turns up on her doorstep.
Kay calls David to see this girl claiming to be her daughter, and he suggests a DNA test. The test comes back as no match so Phoebe is told to leave.
She then hears that her Kay has died and this leads her on a dangerous path to find the truth.
I can’t say too much more about the story as I really don’t want to spoil it for you.
I worked out some of what was really going on but the last few chapters still held a few surprises for me.
I really liked Phoebe’s character and her determination to find the truth.
This is a great psychological thriller that definitely had me hooked throughout.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

First, I want to thank Sam Hepburn, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this review so I can bring you this review.

WOW!!! Sam Hepburn’s latest book Gone Before goes beyond the ripped from the headline story!! She shows you not tells you the human interest side that the media does not show you. This is the part that I crave the most is the human side of the crime. This is one book you must put on your TBR list!!

Instantly Sam Hepburn grasped my full attention into this intense fast paced read from the first chapter. Her writing style is quite different from the rest of the authors I have read for before-but it suited this book perfectly. She is amazing with her descriptions and emotions behind what the characters were feeling.

My heart went into so many different directions in this book! Sam will definitely pull on your heartstrings this one! Just so many emotions for so many characters in this book.

Gone Before started the book out one way and then-BAM-the story takes a huge 180 degrees turn!! WOW! Sam totally shocked me and didn’t see any of that coming!!

Those who know me, would understand how much a missing child arc would get to me. Here too, Maya Duncan went missing years ago and it took her mother Kay Duncan 7 hours to raise alarm. Now 15 years hence, Phoebe knocked on Kay’s door claiming to be the missing Maya. But a shocking discovery was followed by Kay committing suicide. It was all upto Phoebe to untangle the knots that her twisted her life.

My first book by author Sam Hepburn, the story started with a bang. I loved drumming up various possibilities of what could have happened. The author got my thriller-y senses tingling high as the scenarios kept mounting up. The suspense was raised to a pitch when Kay committed suicide and that left me shocked as Phoebe was left with no anchor and no truth to give her a identiy.

Where I would have lost hope, Phoebe was more determined and strong-willed. She didn’t lose hope. She used her resources to get hold of old history and truth was slowly unveiled. Therein lay my niggles too. The story went into cult and other aspects of Kay’s past which led to more characters, and I had to concentrate hard to keep them in line. Though the reveals were good, but the suspense went down as the crux of the matter was still – Who was Phoebe and what happened to Maya?

The writing was great, slightly staccato in places, but the red herrings, the closed alleys, and the hidden truths made the story pop out. The last few pages brought home the truths that I had already suspected, so the journey to reach it was worth the time spent in reading it.

Quite entertaining.

Well this has been one rollercoaster of a story, I'm not kidding, twists and turns all over the place, not knowing whether your coming or going, if your upside down or right way up. I should probably state here that I mean these all in a good way.

This was one crazy story, had me sitting on the edge of my seat plenty. There were moments where you didn't know what to believe and as for that ending, well one word comes to mind, total mind f***. I was shocked come the end.

The whole story was brilliantly written and so very cleverly done. I'm in awe of how the author came up with such a mind blowing/shocking finish to the story.

Well think I'm just going to leave it at that and hopefully my review will tease readers enough to want to read this book themselves.

Sam Hepburn returns with her sophomore thriller based around one of the most notorious child abductions in modern British history. It’s been fifteen years since five-year-old Maya Duncan disappeared. But when a young woman turns up at Kay Duncan’s door, clutching a yellow rainhat with Maya’s name stitched in the back, it seems she might have come home at last. Phoebe is convinced that she is Maya, and that the woman behind the door is her real mother. When she sees Kay, the memories come flooding back, and it seems they are to be reunited at last. But when a shocking discovery leads to tragedy, Phoebe is left grief-stricken and riddled with guilt. Alone and unanchored, Phoebe travels to London to dig into Kay’s life, hoping to uncover the truth behind her own identity. But as she pieces together Kay’s past, Phoebe discovers a disturbing link to the woman who raised her, and a terrible secret that even now could put her life in immense danger.

Gone Before is a compelling, mysterious and addictive read from start to finish and in many ways sounds a lot like a whole plethora of other domestic-based thrillers where a missing child is at the centre of the plot, but I thought it was written in such a way that it captured your attention from the outset, held onto it throughout and spun a yarn filled with exciting developments and chilling, twisty surprises better than some similar books. You soon learn that you should take everything the entire cast utters with a rather large pinch of salt in a story simply overflowing with secrets, lies, betrayal and duplicity, and although the role-call of characters is quite limited this allows the author to give plenty of attention to detail creating an engaging if wholly detestable cast in the process. It's pacy, compulsive and difficult to put down and there are some great, unexpected developments and surprises throughout. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.

I’m honestly not sure how best to review this book. It just felt like there was way too much going on, none of it felt realistic or plausible and yet, I apparently enjoyed it enough to give it three stars.

The first 20% of the book is basically everything that is listed in the synopsis. Phoebe shows up to Kay’s door believing herself to be Kay’s child that was abducted 15 years prior. It seems like mother/daughter will finally be able to have a life together and then something happens, and Kay kills herself. This is all within the first 20%. At this point, we get a whole crap load of exposition and frankly, a whole section of the book I wasn’t interested in at all and skimmed pretty hard-core. For roughly 40%. So here we are, up to 60% into the book and then all the sudden, BAM!! ALL the kitchen sinks!

SPOILERS!!!!

TWO cults, a kidnapper, mistaken identity, religious extremity, infidelity, abuse, statutory rape, suicide, and murder.

END SPOILERS!!!!!

At this point I’m like ‘this crazy train has fully gone of the rails’. At this point, it ultimately just became entertaining. I’m not sure if everything was thrown in to create red herrings, but honestly it just made it super obvious to me exactly what was going on and how the story was going to end, which, when I think about this, is still totally insane because there was so much going on and none of it was realistic.

In one part of this book, Phoebe buys a notebook so she can start writing down the things that she learns and finds out as she tries to put the pieces together. Again, there was just SO MUCH going on in this book, the reader could probably benefit from the same thing.

Ultimately, I decided to give this three-stars because I was invested in the first 20% and then the last 40% was just OTT fun, in my opinion. But I can’t give it more than that because it was so unbelievably unrealistic and they crime/mystery aspect of it was pretty easy to figure out (at least to me).

I think if you’re looking for something chill to read during the quarantine, this would probably be a good one. It wasn’t overtly dark (at least to me), and you do get a kind of an HEA, if that’s your thing.

Received via Netgalley. All opinions are expressly my own.

So undecided about this book. On one hand I loved the story. On the other hand when it went onto the cult aspect it lost me as it seemed so far fetched. However, over all it was an enjoyable book. This would actually make a good tv series.
A girl travels to France. She has recently suffered a bereavement and discovered the woman that brought her up actually kidnapped her. She here to find her birth mother. However, death follows her.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review

UPDATE: (After reading through this review, I’m adding this up here – you really should give this one a try. There were some good twists, and it was definitely a psychological thriller. What follows is my experience with the book, which may be completely different from what other readers experience).

I have to start by saying that I thought this book was going to go in a totally different direction from where it actually ended up.
When I first started reading, I thought that it would be about Phoebe, who may be Maya, finding her birth mother (Kay) after her mother (Roz) dies. Clear on that? It has great premise for all kinds of psychological mindgames.
And I did get that…somewhat.
I thought that Kay and Phoebe’s “reunion” was a little bit farfetched. The whole thing seemed off-kilter, as if neither one really believed the reality of the situation, but each was hoping that was true. I’m still not sure if that was by design to set up the rest of the plot. But it left me confused.
A tragedy occurs after Phoebe finds Kay, which sends Phoebe on a hunt to find out her true identity. Again, plenty of opportunity for some twists and turns as Phoebe realizes that there are more lies than truth in her past.
The problem for me is that the story ended up being something completely different. This is no fault of the author. I think I just had a difficult time switching gears when the author took the story in an alternate direction.
The plot seemed to meander – but it actually did trace Phoebe’s search, and searches are rarely straightforward. So, I suppose that it was clever writing. I just wanted more of a concrete search (again – no fault of the author, just of my own expectations).
I did like the references (and remembrances) of Africa. I thought it was a good way to ground Phoebe when she began to question all of her other memories. At least she knew the ones of her growing up on the animal reserve were true, even as certain assumptions she had were shattered.
Somewhere along the way, there’s a cult involved and a few more tragic incidents that illustrate how screwed up Phoebe’s life really has been. It seems as if the author was going for keeping the reader as off-balance as Phoebe was, and that was very successful
I think if I were to have read this from a different attitude or been able to switch quicker with where the author was going, I would have enjoyed it more. As it is, for the first time, I am considering re-reading a book with a different state-of-mind to see if that changes my perception. Stay tuned for an update.

Fifteen years after the abduction of Maya Dujcan, Phoebe knocks on Kay Duncan's door clutching a yellow rain hat with Maya's name stiched into the back. Phoebe is convinced that she is Maya Duncan and that Kay is her mother. When Phoebe sees Kay the memories come flooding back. Butna shocking discovery shatters the fragile relationship they'd began to build.

This is a fast paced read that's captivating from the first few pages. There's quite a lot of characters but it's easy to follow. There's lots of twists to keep you guessing. The susoense builds throughout. The book has a great plotline. The story is addictive and can easily be read in one sitting..

I would like to thank #NetGalley,,#Bookouture and the author #SamHepburn for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Moly!!! Sam Hepburn can WRITE! Gone Before kept me so gripped from the first page right through to the last. There were some twisty shockers but I did work out quite a bit of it from early on. Even so, I still loved every minute of it! I loved the character development. I loved not knowing who to trust. Phoebe is so tortured as she tries to figure out who she is and where she came from. I couldn’t figure out if she should trust the journalists or not. I don’t want to spill any details so I’ll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and thought about your characters throughout my day and even after finishing this one! My only frustration was that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!
Definite 5 stars from me!

Huge thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for allowing me the privilege of reading this book in advance!

Fifteen years after the worse case of child abduction in British history, a young girl named Phoebe shows up at the doorstep of Kay Duncan, who she was told is her real mother after the woman Roz who abducted and raised her passes away from cancer. She has the childhood memories of the five year old named Maya Duncan and when her maternity test comes back negative and Kay turns up dead, she is determined to find the truth of who she really is in this interesting psychological thriller. Death, sadness, and unanswered questions seem to follow her wherever she goes.
She learns things along the way who her father is and more details about both of the mysterious women in her life. Kay had been harrassed and her named dragged through the mud as the media and society believes she killed Maya in cold blood all those years ago. Roz joined a cult when she was young and impressionable, escaped with her baby, and raised her at a nature reserve in Africa. There were so many character's lives woven into this book that sometimes it was hard to keep up, but it all ties together quite well in the very ending. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to leave my honest review.

This is the first book I've read from this author and I can't wait to read more. A psychological thriller full of twist. Stunningly written fast paced addictive from start to finish.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed it. The book is about Maya Duncan who went missing fifteen years ago aged five without any trace. Now a young woman known as Phoebe is convinced that she is the missing Maya and tracks down the woman she believes is her birth mother Kay Duncan.
When Phoebe sees Kay, the memories come flooding back, and it appears that mother and daughter are reunited but a shocking discovery halts all the celebrations. Kay commits suicide and Phoebe is left guilt ridden. Phoebe wants to uncover the truth to her past and her identity but discovers a disturbing link to the woman who raised her and a secret that could put her life in danger.
An intriguing story with lots of twists that will keep you guessing throughout. Good characters and a well paced plot making this a very good read.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Bookouture for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to read this book and it's not because it was not a good one. On the contrary...

It had a lot of things going on these last few days and that meant I had less time to read. It usually annoys me heaps but this time it was good. This story has so many twists and turns that on the one hand you need time to stop and think but on the other hand you want to rush and find out how it all will come together.

I would recommend to read at a slower pace and let everything sink in before you read the next part. In my opinion this is what this book needs or what you need to do as a reader. Of course, it's all up to you how you do it, but this was my experience. :)

As I said before: lots of twists and turns that will leave your head spinning. I had to check sometimes whether mine was facing backwards or not. ;)

Take your time, let it sink in and you will be rewarded. It's a complicated but great story. 5 stars.

Thank you Sam Hepburn and Bookouture

Maya Duncan disappears at the age of 5.
15 years later and Phoebe knocks at Kay Duncan’s door, convinced that she is Kay’s long lost daughter. Phoebe, who has been brought up in Botswana, has a letter from Roz, giving details of the abduction. She found them after Roz died.

As Phoebe starts looking into Kay’s life, that’s when things start going drastically wrong.

This is a new author to me and I enjoyed her style of writing. I liked the characters and all the investigation work that linked up for Phoebe in the story. I found myself feeling sorry for Phoebe, alone in a foreign country and without the woman she had thought of as her mother for so long. I liked the twists in the story, there were certainly plenty of them! I will definitely be reading more from this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for my copy in exchange for an honest review.