"She Fell Away" by Lenore Nash

 

A State Department diplomat must confront the ghosts of her past as she searches for a missing American woman in New Zealand in this pulse-pounding and unputdownable thriller.

Lake Harlowe may not appear to be your typical State Department diplomat. With the number of skeletons in her closet exceeding the tattoos on her skin, she moves to a new country every few years to keep one step ahead of her personal demons. After two grueling years working in Cambodia, Lake’s desperate for a break and a new posting to sleepy Wellington, New Zealand, seems like a dream come true.

That is, until eighteen-year-old singer-songwriter Bowie Bishop mysteriously vanishes shortly after American NFL player Bruce Walter is found dead in his hotel room. An exchange student from Las Vegas, Bowie was a world away from her possessive, washed-up stage mom who won’t stop calling until Lake finds her superstar daughter.

All at once, Lake finds herself ensnared in a network of deception involving Bowie’s high-profile host family, a shadowy music producer, a casino magnate, and the US ambassador—her boss. Obsessed with finding the truth, Lake soon realizes that to find the missing girl, she must confront her own dark past in this unputdownable thriller that will keep you guessing until the final page. ~taken from Goodreads

Lake Harlow is a U.S. State Department diplomat new to Wellington, New Zealand. It is not her first assignment overseas, as she is running away from a dark and frightening past of her own.

Bowie Bishop is a U.S. exchange student currently missing with ties to a, now deceased, American NFL player who was found dead in his Wellington hotel suite. 

Bowie's mom is a washed-up singer who spends her life trying to make her daughter a superstar and calls Lake pleading to please help find her daughter. While Lake is not an investigator, she feels drawn to Bowie, and begins searching for clues as to where this teenager may be. 

This novel started out so promising, an intriguing mystery mixed with some dark pasts. But what could have been an intense phycological thriller quickly turns soft when the author starts throwing in sad lyrics to songs written by Bowie, flashbacks into Bowie's "woe is me" life, and Lake's complete disregard for her diplomatic career and protocols that need followed.   

The plot gets very predictable yet wildly off script. The characters lacked growth; were very one-dimensional. The situations they found themselves in became so absurd and unbelievable as well as the dialog between them.

The anti-climatic ending seemed so completely jumbled and awkward. I had such a hard time imaging what was actually taking place. 

This story is told from alternating perspectives, which may have been what kept taking away from the story. The switch up seemed to interrupt the flow. The excessive use of song lyrics seemed unnecessary, and I honestly skipped right over them. I got the gist that Bowie was sad, I didn't need to imagine a song about it. 

This seems to have ended like this was a start to a series. I don't know if I would read another. Now that I know this is a soft mystery at best, it is not really my style. 

Thanks to Edelweiss and Atria Books for gifting me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. This was a 3-star read for me.

"She Fell Away" is set to be released on March 10, 2026 here in the U.S. so pre-order your copy now! 

Happy Reading!