Introduction
Published in April 2026, She Didn’t See It Coming is a new psychological thriller authored by Shari Lapena that has amassed lovers for its fast-paced prose. It is a standalone murder mystery that will leave you grappling for more.
A Summary
Bryden and Sam have crafted a life that looks effortless from the outside - good jobs, a glossy apartment in a high‑end building, a circle of friends who actually show up, and a daughter who is the heartbeat of their home. It’s the kind of stability people envy. Until the day Sam gets a call at work: Bryden never arrived to pick up their little girl. He drives home, trying not to panic. Her car is still in the underground garage. Upstairs, the apartment feels frozen mid‑day. Her laptop is open, her phone is on the table, her keys are exactly where she always drops them. But Bryden isn’t there. No message. No explanation. No sign she ever intended to leave. It’s like she stepped out of her own life and didn’t come back. As hours pass and neighbours start whispering, the shine on their perfect world dulls. The condo doesn’t feel so secure anymore. Friends who once seemed solid suddenly feel… off. And the past Bryden and Sam shared begins to look less like a foundation and more like a puzzle with missing pieces.
Writing Style
The prose is extremely dialogue heavy, with POV changes every few pages. The chapters themselves are of average size at around 10-15 pages, but there are POV switches throughout those.
My Thoughts
I’m sad to say that I didn’t jive with this book as much as I hoped I would, and I am disappointed heavily by it. This book was a random pick that had been on my TBR since it came out in April, and I decided that I needed a good thriller to scratch the itch, but this failed on almost every level to do that.
Firstly, the writing style felt almost entirely dialogue, and even when it wasn’t dialogue, it was such base level observations about the character’s surroundings that I could turn my brain off. I didn’t have to think because I wasn’t trusted to make my own observations about the information I was given. For example, there would be an entire page of dialogue and then a few sentences about a character glancing to the floor and rather than letting me, as the reader, sit with that, it was immediately explained that it was indicative of a lie. Also, there were pieces of information in here that were told as factual that were just wrong! Plenty of the discussions about body language and lying were incorrect or presented as flat-out facts and that is not the case. That really annoyed me throughout the novel because it just feels lazy.
On top of all of this, the plot itself didn’t feel new at all. I had guessed fairly early who had killed Bryden and how the story would play out, but the book kept trying to purposefully throw red herrings at me that had no actual impact on the plot at all. There was an entire section of characters that felt as if they were thrown in there because the book would have been too short without them, rather than actually having involvement in the plot.
I will say, it was a fast read for me, and I love that the text in the UK version is larger than average.
Trigger Warnings
Please note this is a non-comprehensive list and there may be triggers in this book not explicitly stated here.
- Murder
- Domestic Abuse
- Adultery
- Grief
Recommendation
I do think I am the minority by the fact I disliked this book as the ratings on amazon and Goodreads are fairly high, but I would say, if you are an avid reader of thrillers, I believe this would be too boring for you.
