March 2025 Book Review: The Story She Left Behind

Book by: Patti Callahan Henry
Review by: Dr. Wendy Hooper-Meletes, Ed.D., owner of Litchfield Books

1927, Bluffton, South Carolina. Acclaimed author Bronwyn disappears without a trace, leaving behind her husband and her young daughter Clara. A most intriguing literary mystery where, even today, the fate of the real Barbara Follett remains unsolved. Bronwyn drew on her own strength to disappear one moonlit night, after a disagreement with her husband, satchel in hand she leaves behind precious eight year old Clara, and a seaside cottage where she created her bestselling mystery books. Vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.

1952, London England. Clara, a children’s book illustrator and her daughter Winnie head off to London based on a tip from a stranger to solve the mystery of a missing woman and her manuscript. This chill-bump interest has a story hiding within, the story exists not merely in her imagination. The longing to reunite with her lost mother and hopefully find the puzzling manuscript from the satchel is what sends Clara and Winnie through the choking smog of London on a desperate search to expose what happened to her.

This novel is inspired by real events but is a work of historical fiction. Patti Callahan presents this enchanting literary mystery from an era of female child prodigy writers like Beatrix Potter and of course the character the novel is based on, Barbara Newhall Follett. Nothing in “The Story She Left Behind” better shows how three generations of women from South Carolina to England tied together by secrets will leave readers wishing for more.

Join Litchfield Books as they host Patti Callahan Henry on Monday, March 24, 2025, from 11-1 pm at the Pine Lakes Country Club in Myrtle Beach, SC. Tickets must be purchased in advance at www.litchfieldbooks.com/events.