Remember me
Then He Was Gone
Isabel Booth
Crooked Lane Books
Feb 2026
Then He Was Gone by Isabel Booth is a thriller that depicts every parent’s worst nightmare. What would they do if a child goes missing? To add to the stress is that it happened in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, a vast area of rugged terrain with miles of hiking trails.
Booth noted, “My husband, my two sons, and I have hiked many, many times in Rocky Mountain National Park. I started to write a little meditation on hiking and the park because I love it so much. One night the idea came to me about a story where a little boy goes missing in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Monroe, the Park Ranger, and Elizabeth, the mom, look for Henry there making the park an integral part of the story. Was he taken or lost somewhere in the park? Hiking appears throughout the story.”
The story is told from many viewpoints that include the parents, Elizabeth and Paul, the missing child Henry, the older brother, Nick, Aunt Alex, and the Park Ranger Hollis Monroe. By hearing separately from those involved, readers can follow their thinking which has different perspectives. Nick’s narrative is heart wrenching. He feels guilty and misses Henry’s quirky ways and cannot imagine life without his six-year-old brother. He resents his parents because he feels they are not doing enough to find Henry who ran off as his parents tried to catch up to him.
“I hope readers see Nick as an intelligent, precocious ten-year-old. He loves his brother deeply and feels guilty that Henry went missing when the two of them were together. He has a lot of complicated emotions as a child who is experiencing a complicated loss.”
Elizabeth is also having a hard time dealing with the loss and decides she can do more. Every day she distributes pictures of Henry as well as re-walking the hiking trails looking for some clues.
“I created Elizabeth as an intelligent, hard-working lawyer who strives for a successful career. But she is also very devoted to her family and tries to strike that balance between family and work. She is a sympathetic character who is fiercely devoted to her family and will never stop looking for Henry.”
Paul blames Elizabeth for being too career oriented and not being home enough. He also wanted to stay in Houston and is not very enthusiastic, as Elizabeth was, about the wilderness and hiking trails in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
“I wrote Paul as a poet. He is insecure who feels he is living in Elizabeth’s shadow. He comes across at the beginning of not being very likable. As the story unfolds, I think readers like him more. He is a devoted father who is devasted by Henry’s appearance.”
The Park Ranger Hollis Monroe is calm and shows understanding to Elizabeth as he realizes she wants answers. Booth describes him as “a well-worn, no nonsense former Sherrif who has seen it all. He comes across as gruff around the edges but has a heart of gold. He is very devoted to finding Henry.”
Alexis, known to the children as Aunt Alex, is Elizabeth’s best friend. She plays an intricate role in the latter part of the book. Booth commented, “Aunt Alex is a hard driving lawyer, a former beauty queen. She has these contradictory character traits. She cusses like a sailor and successfully operates in a male driven environment. But she also has a very soft heart and loves Henry like her own son.”
This plot has tension and drama that ratchets up.
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