Gone Without A Trace by Mary Torjussen

Hannah Monroe is riding high.  She has just been to a very successful conference at which her supervisors have made it clear to her that she is on the road to promotions and further success at her company.  She can't wait to get home and share the news with her boyfriend, Matt.  She is so excited she stops to get some champagne to celebrate but when she pulls into her driveway, the house is dark.  Disappointed that she has beaten Matt home, she opens the door and all normalcy goes out as she goes in.

Inside, something is wrong.  The first thing she notices is that the big pictures that hung in the entryway are missing.  As she goes further in, she sees that the big-screen tv which was Matt's pride and joy is missing as well, although oddly, the old tv it replaced is back there.  As she looks around, she sees other things missing and she starts to realise that only Matt's things are gone.  Unable to understand at first, she looks further and further and finally the truth sinks in.  Matt is gone.  He has left her without a word of explanation.  Frantically, she looks through her phone only to see that all her pictures of Matt and her messages to him are gone.  The same is true on her computer.  No pictures, no emails.  He has wiped himself from her life.

Hannah's world falls apart.  She tells her best friend, Katie, but Katie is absorbed in her own life with her own boyfriend and career.   Hannah doesn't tell her family at first as her parents have a troubled marriage and she tries to avoid saying anything personal around them.  She tries to find Matt.  As she does so, the realization that this was a fully planned operation becomes apparent.  He has quit his job.  Even his mother has moved away with no forwarding address.

Soon Hannah's days become chaotic as she determines to find Matt, no matter what.  She is sure that if she can only talk to him, she can figure out how to get him back.  Her work begins to suffer as she spends her days worried less about her accounts and more about chasing down any clue she has.  Her health and appearance suffer as she skips most meals and drinks herself to sleep on the nights she even does sleep.  Soon her whole life is in jeopardy.  Will she give up the search or find a way to rescue Matt from wherever he has disappeared to?

Mary Torjussen has written a suspense novel that will ring true to Type A personalities and to those who have gone through the heartbreak of someone loved who decides unexpectedly to break things off.  There is the realization, the slow acceptance that nothing will ever be the same again.  For most people that is followed by a rebuilding of one's life, but for Hannah and those like her, it becomes an obsession that they can't let go.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.