The Day I Lost You - by Ruth Mancini (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The internationally bestselling author of The Woman on the Ledge returns with a twisty thriller about a missing child and three adults whose shared secrets and hidden history could prove deadly.

"I need to report a crime. My baby has been stolen."

All Lauren wants is a new life in Spain. She's suffered an unimaginable loss, but at last she has found a home in the pretty seaside town of Mantilla de Mar. Everyone deserves a new start, and Lauren needs to put her past firmly behind her.

Hope has everything: an interesting career as a therapist, an attractive husband, a dream home in the countryside - and, finally, the baby she always longed for. Sam. Her beautiful boy.

But Sam has gone missing.

So when the police tell her that a woman has been found in Spain with a child matching Sam's description, Hope thinks that her nightmare might be coming to an end.

But Lauren is insisting Sam is her baby. She even has his passport and birth certificate to prove it.

So what really happened to Baby Sam? And who still has secrets to hide?

One child. Two mothers. And a past that won't let them go.

Review Quotes

"Mancini's twisty and twisted tale unspools in a pinwheeling narrative . . . . catapulting to a [an] undeniably gratifying finale. . . . readers will race through this." - Publishers Weekly

"With multiple (and mostly unreliable) narrators and a story told in reverse, this is a unique mystery. Readers may think they know what's going on, but Mancini (The Woman on the Ledge, 2024) will introduce a twist at just the right moment, making readers question everything they've read so far. The decision to start the story at the end is clever, . . . .mystery fans will enjoy this twisty thriller." - Booklist

"The Day I Lost You is an ingeniously constructed mystery that lays bare the lengths to which a mother's love will drive her . . . this is a book well worth reading." -- Manhattan Book Review

"This is an intense, twisty novel that you think you know what is going on, and then bam, a new twist. A perfect end-of-the-year novel for your reading pleasure." - Red Carpet Crash

"Ruth Mancini's The Day I Lost You is a taut, emotionally charged psychological thriller that explores motherhood, grief, and the thin line between truth and delusion. It's the kind of novel that keeps you second-guessing every chapter, and just when you think you've figured it out, you haven't." - Crimespree Magazine

"The Day I Lost You is a layered, thought-provoking domestic thriller perfect for readers who crave moral complexity, emotional tension, and stories where the truth has consequences no one can escape." -- Write on the World

"Fresh, original, utterly intriguing and so, so clever. I don't think I've ever turned pages faster to try to find out what was going on! I loved it." - Andrea Mara, internationally bestselling author of It Should Have Been You and Someone in the Attic

"A clever, compelling rollercoaster ride of a book, never letting up until its final resolution. The kind of novel that will have you thinking about the moral and ethical implications of a crime long after you've finished. Ruth Mancini is like a British Jodi Piccoult." - Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

"Taut, tense and thought provoking, The Day I Lost You is a propulsive, emotional thriller about love and loss and the lengths people will go to protect themselves, or others. I flew through it, changing my mind every few pages about whose side I was on, whilst concocting theories as to what had happened. It was a hugely satisfying read." - C.L. Taylor, Sunday Times bestselling author of Every Move You Make and The Guilty Couple

"Ruth Mancini has done it again. Smart, twisty and propulsive, The Day I Lost You has all the elements of a great psych thriller expertly woven together by Mancini's legal knowledge which cranks it up to ten!" - Harriet Tyce, author of A Lesson in Cruelty and It Ends at Midnight

"If you thought Ruth Mancini couldn't top The Woman on the Ledge think again..." - Sabine Durrant, author of Sun Damage and Finders, Keepers

"This one really packs an emotional punch. Thought-provoking, compelling and, at times, heart-breaking. Really kept me guessing, right up until the end." - Anna Mazzola, author of The Book of Secrets and The Clockwork Girl

"Ruth Mancini is fast becoming a master of the thriller genre--The Day I Lost You is a whirlwind of delicious confusion with everything coming sharply into focus at the end. So clever and engaging. I loved it." - Laura Pearson, internationally bestselling author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont

"The Woman on the Ledge blew me away like The Girl on the Train blew me away nearly ten years ago. Compulsive, clever and gasp out loud twisty, I absolute loved it." - Lisa Jewell, author of None of This Is True on The Woman on the Ledge

"Wonderfully twisty, fabulously unexpected and immensely satisfying." - Alex Marwood, author of The Island of Lost Girls, on The Woman on the Ledge

"The best kind of plot-twisty structure where the writing itself becomes part of the intrigue. I devoured it!" - Sabine Durrant, author of Sun Damage, on The Woman on the Ledge

"Breathtaking storytelling. Every time you think you know what's happening you realise you're wrong. Stunning." - Jane Fallon on The Woman on the Ledge

"A thrill-ride of a novel--dark, riveting and twisty. The Woman on the Ledge is one to devour!" - Lucy Clarke, author of One of the Girls, on The Woman on the Ledge

"A fiendishly clever revenge thriller in which absolutely nothing is what it first appears. . . . Several masterpieces of misdirection, and a propulsive plot with twists and turns galore, this is utterly gripping from first to last. I guarantee you'll be absolutely hooked.'" - The Guardian on The Woman on the Ledge