What She Knew (Macmillan)

What She Knew 
Gilly Macmillan, 2015
HarperCollins
496 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062413864


Summary
[A] mother’s search for her missing son, weaving a taut psychological thriller as gripping and skillful as The Girl on the Train and The Guilty One.

In a heartbeat, everything changes…

Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes.  

Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone.

As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion.

As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that nothing is quite as she imagined it to be, not even her own judgment. And the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most.

Where is Ben? The clock is ticking... (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Swindon, Wiltshire, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Bristol University; M.A., Courtald Institute of Art
• Currently—lives in Bristol


Gilly Macmillan grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and also lived in Northern California in her late teens.  She studied History of Art at Bristol University and then at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

She worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family, and since then has done some lecturing in "A" Level photography.

Gilly lives in Bristol, UK with her husband and three children and now writes full time. She’s currently working on her third novel (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
here's a depressing sameness to mysteries about missing children. A detective is bound to become obsessed with the case, one of the frantic parents is sure to come under suspicion, and there's only a 50-50 chance the child will be found alive. The British writer Gilly Macmillan introduces some smart variations on the theme in her debut mystery, What She Knew.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review


A terrific debut.
Reader's Digest


A very clever, tautly plotted page turned from a terrific new writer.
Good Housekeeping


Heart-in-the-mouth excitement from the start of this electrifyingly good debut…an absolute firecracker of a thriller that convinces and captivates from the word go. A must read.
Sunday Mirror (UK)


One of the brightest debuts I have read this year - a visceral, emotionally charged story….heart-wrenchingly well told and expertly constructed, this deserves to stay on the bestseller list until Christmas.
Daily Mail (UK)


Macmillan’s magnificent debut delves into the emotional destruction wrought by Ben’s disappearance. No one is unaffected, and she draws out every inch of trauma suffered by all as they search for the boy. It’s a tour de force as the reader discovers on each page (Top Pick of December 2015).
Romatic Times Review


British author Macmillan alternates between two narrators in her haunting first novel: Rachel Finch, a grieving mother whose eight-year-old son, Ben, disappears...and Det. Insp. James “Jim” Clemo, who tirelessly searches to find Ben.... Readers will have a tough time putting this one down.
Publishers Weekly


Macmillan peppers her debut with subtle red herrings and a variety of potential suspects, ratcheting up the tension slowly but oh so deliciously.
Booklist


The requisite family secrets come to light, though Macmillan gets credit for some truly clever red herrings. While there's little new ground broken, the missing child scenario, when done reasonably well, as it is here, is a reliable hook, and with Macmillan's taut pacing, this is an engaging debut.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• GENERIC MYSTERY QUESTIONS
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for What She Knew...then take off on your own:

1. How does the novel's title, What She Knew, relate to the narrative? What is it's significance to the work?

2. What do you think of Rachel? What kind of mother is she? How does she evolve throughout the course of the novel? And what about Rachel's sister, Nicky, who seems to know more than she lets on?

3. Talk about DI Jim Clemo. In what way does his voice serve as a counterpoint to Rachel's? His involvement in the case is professional, but how does it affect him? Also talk about DC Emma Zhang, whom Clemo recommends, perhaps unwisely, as Family Liaison Officer.

4. What role does social media play in the novel? Do you think the online reaction is realistic?

5. Almost every reviewer refers to the book as a page-turner. Did you experience it that way? What creates the book's intensity?

6. Macmillan told Huffington Post that she wrote three different endings to the book: one too pat and easy, the second too dark, and the third, "a more truthful conclusion than the other two." What do you think of the ending? Is it satisfying? Want to take a stab at what the other two might have been like (Macmillan has not said, by the way)?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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