And She Was – A Brenna Spector Novel by Alison Gaylin

And She Was by Alison Gaylin is the first book of the Brenna Spector novels. It has suspense, mystery, and crime solving all mixed into a well written story about a missing child and the people her case effected.

Book Description

“On a summer afternoon in 1998, six-year-old Iris Neff walked away from a barbecue in her small suburban town . . . and vanished.

Missing persons investigator Brenna Spector has a rare neurological disorder that enables her to recall every detail of every day of her life. A blessing and a curse, it began in childhood, when her older sister stepped into a strange car never to be seen again, and it’s proven invaluable in her work. But it hasn’t helped her solve the mystery that haunts her above all others—and it didn’t lead her to little Iris. When a local woman, Carol Wentz, disappears eleven years later, Brenna uncovers bizarre connections between the missing woman, the long-gone little girl . . . and herself.” – And She Was

My Thoughts

And She Was is the first book in the Brenna Spector novel series. It is also the first book I read in the series. The author does a brilliant job laying out all of the characters, making them realistic and ones that you want to see what happens to (even if you don’t really like all of them).

Brenna Spector reminds me of the woman on the TV series “Unforgettable” because of her memory. However, Alison Gaylin’s series is much different. I like both of the series, and don’t think this should be any kind of situation where you can only enjoy on of them. If you like one, you’ll probably like the other one, too.

Brenna Spector is the standout character in the book for me. The characters involved with the missing disappearance of the little girl bored me and I didn’t really care what happened to them, but I still wanted to find out, if that makes sense. Brenna is definitely worthy of a series all about her and I can’t wait to read the next two books in the series!

This is a great detective, suspense novel that will have you reading it for much longer periods of time than you had intended. It is not a secret romance or life altering series. It is fun, enjoyable, and makes you want to read more by this author though, and really, what more can you ask for? I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of And She Was, Harper, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.