The Life She Left Behind: An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking page turner

The Life She Left Behind is the eleventh novel by Australian author, Nicole Trope. Rachel Flinders has a perfect life: a loving husband, a sweet daughter and their beautiful new dream house. At least, it should be perfect. But her beloved mother is dying, the house stands alone in a new subdivision, and her husband seems tense, edgy. And then, an intruder, who doesn't take anything, but leaves something that strikes fear into Rachel's heart.

When Ben Flinders gets a late-night call from his distressed wife, he rushes home; the police are there, but Rachel ascribes her alarm to a possum, and there are no signs of forced entry. Perhaps the stress that Rachel is under with her mother, and the isolation, has affected her perception and equanimity. Himself, Ben is stressed about leaving his young family vulnerable in this empty suburb, in a house that has overextended his means, just when his work situation is looking tenuous.

Little Bird is what Daddy calls her, and she tries very hard to do everything exactly as he tells her, because when they don't, her (often nasty) older brother Kevin feels the effects of Daddy's anger; Mummy, even when she does everything right, seems to end up with her skin blue with hurting flowers.

Dr Amanda Sharma's latest patient on Lyndon Public Hospital's psychiatric ward knows he has to tread carefully if he wants to avoid a transfer to prison. He got drunk and almost beat a man to death, so he has the twenty-one days of his involuntary admission to prove to her that he belongs here. The system, the doctors, the nurses are all easier to manipulate than the bunch of sadists that run the prison.

Trope's depiction of life with a psychopath is believable and downright scary: the physical, emotional and psychological abuse that leads to difficult choices and long-held secrets certainly attract the reader's empathy, although some are bound to find the violence confronting. And those creepy troll dolls will send a shiver down many a spine. An engrossing read.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Bookouture.