All You Took From Me

by Lisa Kenway

WINNER 2025 Ned Kelly Awards, Best Debut Crime Fiction
Shortlisted 2025 Danger Awards, Debut Crime Fiction

Set between the Blue Mountains and a Sydney hospital, Lisa Kenway's All You Took From Me is a thriller brimming with great characters and nail-biting tension.

Anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle accident. So why is a stranger following her? After questioning patients about their dreams, she becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug might help her access missing memories. But there's no way to be certain without jeopardising her career or her life.

As unexplained threats escalate, Clare realises she must take matters into her own hands to learn the uncomfortable truth about her secretive husband, his connection to a mysterious club and what she did to trigger a stranger's crusade for vengeance. But how far will she go?

Genres: Fiction

330 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2024

About the author

Lisa Kenway is an award-winning Australian writer and anaesthetist with an interest in memory and consciousness. Her debut psychological thriller, ALL YOU TOOK FROM ME, won the 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2025 Danger Awards. An early version of this novel was longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize. Lisa was awarded a Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre Fellowship in 2023, was Highly Commended in the 2022 Writing NSW Varuna Fellowships and has been published widely in journals and anthologies.

Reviews

[Veronica ⭐️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

All You Took From Me is a compelling debut novel from Lisa Kenway. Cleverly plotted to slowly release vital information which kept me eagerly turning the pages to find out what Clare had blocked from her memory.

Clare Carpenter wakes in UCI in a Sydney hospital to be told she had been in a car accident in which her husband died. She has been in a coma for months and can't remember the accident or the months leading up to it.

After being released from hospital and returning to her isolated Blue Mountains home Clare finds she is being stalked and someone is leaving threatening notes. Feeling she must solve the mystery behind her memory loss Claire, an anaesthetist herself, believes an anaesthetic drug may help her remember, but she will be putting her life and career in danger.

I quite often struggle with a first person narration and I did struggle with this one. Clare is erratic and complicated. I couldn't warm to her. But that aside, I found the story was gripping, tension filled and carried an overarching sense of menace. Clare's memories, revealed through hypnosis and anaesthetic, were vivid and suspense filled. I loved the slow reveal.

All You Took From Me is a powerful debut which explores the world of repressed memory.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very consumable book. Lots happened and snippets of information are revealed at intervals, keeping the reader interested. I just didn’t connect with the main character, anesthetist Clare Carpenter. I didn’t find her very likeable and many of her actions were extremely questionable. Touted as a ‘psychological thriller’ the story never felt very tense for me and the ending was a little too neat. In saying that, Kenway, in her debut novel has produce an enjoyable read that kept me focused right up to the end.

[Stef O'connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story but I felt it dragged on in a few places early on. I couldn’t take to Clare at all, for someone so smart, she certainly lacked commonsense. The end, which I didn’t see coming, tied things together nicely

[Michele (michelethebookdragon) · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a storyline that had me gripped from the first chapter, All You Took From Me is a gritty and intriguing thriller.

Clare wakes up in intensive care and learns that she has been in a terrible accident, has been in a coma for four weeks and that her husband Ray is dead. Suffering from amnesia Clare cannot remember the accident or the months leading up to it. What happened?

While trying to get her life back on track Clare starts to second guess herself when she thinks she is being followed. Then she gets threatening notes left in her letterbox, photos of her house sent to her phone when she is not there.

What is it she can't remember? Why is this happening to her? She starts to wonder if she knew Ray at all as she slowly starts to remember snippets of her life before.

The lengths that Clare will go to to try and remember what she needs to remember to get to the bottom of this story are frightening and may cost her life.

This was a riveting story that was chaotic in the best way with an extremely unreliable narrator in Clare who doesn't know what is real or imagined.

[K.M. Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this psychological thriller from debut author, Lisa Kenway, Dr Clare Carpenter, wakes from a coma to discover a car accident took her husband and her memories of the last few months.

As she’s piecing her life back together, threatening messages from a stranger, and flickers of memories she can’t be sure are real, makes Clare question not only herself, but if the man she married was who she thought.

When her past and present collide, Clare puts her job as an anaesthetist at risk, as well as her mental health using hypnosis to uncover what’s been blanked out. Clare is a strong woman, but not without her flaws. Her grief for her husband, a lost close friendship, and the years-old shunning of her estranged family compound, adding layers to her character, and setting up inevitable truths when the well-foreshadowed twists fill the final chapters.

While the first half of the book is a slow burn, and the story goes in directions you didn’t think it would, the action-packed climax is thrilling, making All You Took From Me a satisfying read, crafted by a talented writer who knows how to meld beautiful prose and gritty storytelling to create an intriguing page-turner.

[Matthew Exner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anticlimactic. Found it hard to connect to the characters - I liked the pacing towards the end, but for such an unlikely and unfortunate story Clare found herself in, I was disappointed that it just… ended.

[Sarah Sasson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Kenway’s debut Australian thriller All You Took From Me opens with anaesthetist-protagonist Clare Carpenter regaining awareness in an intensive care unit after barely surviving the car accident that killed her husband. Suffering a retrograde amnesia, we follow Clare as she pieces together the last months of her life. A Medieval Fight-club, underworld crime networks and score-settlers on the fringes of society all contribute to a complex web that Clare must disentangle herself from in order to secure her new life.
Kenway is a smart and talented writer who interrogates the porous borderlines between memory, fear, dreams and subconsciousness, using her own medical expertise to strong effect. This book will appeal to readers who enjoyed Dark Mode by Ashley Kalagian Blunt and also the films Memento and Inception; Kenway is a writer to watch.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always great to see a new Australian writer. This is an interesting debut and an interesting take on the amnesia trope: an anaesthetist wakes from a car accident to find her husband is dead under mysterious circumstances, but she can’t remember the lead up to the accident.

[Ozrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anaesthetist Clare has amnesia brought on after an horrific car accident that kills her husband. She doesn’t know what happened! An awful situation. I wonder if her memories will return? How will they be triggered? And what’s lurking in there that doesn't want to come out?
The answers of course!
Yeah, yeah, stuff like this happens, but it’s all just a little too convenient as a plot device, isn’t it? I don't remember why . . . insert crucial event here . . . Clare’s psychologist hypnotises her - to hopefully bring the memories to the surface and lo and behold it works.
Kind of. But not enough.
So Clare hits on the plan to dope herself, so she can dive into her subconscious and bring those nasty memories into the light. But not quite. Damn!
Fast forward to after Clare survives an inflicted drug overdose from the balaclavaed baddie, while trapped (bound hand and foot) in her burning house and is released from the psych ward(!) and her hospital security pass is still working even though she’s facing disciplinary charges and possible police prosecution and she’s able to secure ‘drugs’ to help her get to the bottom of what-the-hell has been going on. Phew. That was quite a sentence. It just ran on and on and on. Kind of like Clare. Made myself feel tired after all of that.
Yeah, so Clare’s had a little jui-jitsu training and been taught a little sword play and she’s out there messing with the bikie boys. For real? She ends up killing one dude, leaving his brother for dead, was kind of responsible for the accident that killed her husband, was self medicating drugs, messing with patients’s anaesthesia, cheated on her husband, neglected her cat and she’s the goodie? Huh?
And then when the mysteries are solved, the new bloke in charge of the criminal gang Clare’s husband had been spying on for the Feds - who was originally in charge and is *again* now thanks to Clare’s handiwork - tells her don’t worry, don’t say anything and you’ll be fine. Sweet as. The killer (ie Clare) gets away with murder(s). Yay.

[Kelly Sgroi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to @lisakenway for providing me with an #ARC 📘 #AllYouTookFromMe is spine-tingling good!

This Australian #debut #thriller begins when anaesthetist, Clare Carpenter wakes up on a bed in the hospital where she works, learning she’s lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle accident.

Struggling to understand why the police are questioning her and who could be stalking her, Clare becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug holds the key to unlocking her memory.

But the cost of her recklessness could be fatal or it might help her remember…

📘 This book had me fully immersed from the first page. I love how Lisa injects all the senses into her writing, allowing me to feel everything in her scenes along with her characters. Lisa’s main characters, Clare and Ray have interests, secrets, and backstories that form a whole network of plots, that kept me questioning their integrity and unable to guess how the story would end.

By infusing her real-life vocation with her protagonist, Lisa delivers an authentic and detailed experience for the reader inside the operating theatre. So when Clare pushes boundaries, experimenting with drugs, it’s chilling!

This twisty thriller will have your skin crawling long after you finish reading.

Think Flatliners meets Sons of Anarchy.

Highly recommend 💙💙💙💙💙

[Rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle accident. So why is a stranger following her? After questioning patients about their dreams, she becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug might help her access missing memories. But there’s no way to be certain without jeopardising her career or her life.

This book started like a standard domestic thriller with a car accident involving a couple. I thought I knew what I was getting but oh boy… it evolved into grander happenings I hadn’t expected.

The amnesia, anaesthetic, fight clubs - so much packed in a story, which in this case made it fresh as I don’t think I had read anything like this. I couldn’t see where it was going and I happily let myself be immersed.

I’m glad to have found Lisa Kenway’s writing, and I’m excited to read more!

(Thanks to DMCPR Media and BAD Sydney Crime Writer Festival for a gifted review copy)

See my bookstagram review.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many books could keep my attention through a hectic eleven day holiday with friends but this was so easy to pick up whenever I could squeeze in some time.
‘All you took from me’ starts dramatically with FMC Clare waking in an ICU bed after a horrific car crash, with no recall of the months prior. Grieving the death of her husband and returning to work as an Anaesthetist is more than enough to cope with but someone is stalking her and she has no memory of the crash or who they could be.
The secret to working it out- trying to reverse her amnesia.
Through hypnotism and then experimenting with her knowledge of anaesthetic.
I didn’t love Clare but she is one tough cookie. She certainly helped supply some action.
Well paced, plot driven psychological thriller that made for a great holiday read.

Thank you to @goodreadingmag for sending me an early #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Shan · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10
Mystery aspect was interesting - how they fed the clues was interesting. Best part of the story was the cat.

Main character doesn’t seem to have a brain most of the time. Does not seem like a girls girl. Just went like good bye best friend of many years, you’re just jealous of me and my husband who’ve I’ve known for not even a year???? Also how it addresses rape is just??????

[Sue Mewett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bizarre-

[Naomi Shippen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clare Carpenter must rebuild her life following a serious car crash that took her beloved husband and has left her with severe memory loss. As she recovers, Clare is menaced by some dubious characters whose motivations and connection to her life she doesn’t understand. Going to the police is not an option, and so using her skills as an anesthetist, Clare resorts to high-risk measures to retrieve the memories she needs to survive.

Clare Carpenter is one of the most original characters I have ever read, with her intriguing backstory, impulsivity, and commitment to the people she loves. Her physical courage and fierce intelligence are admirable although she does walk the fine line between genius and madness.

Full of unexpected twists and turns, All You Took From Me is an intriguing story that makes for compulsive reading right up until the breathtaking conclusion.

[Anna Loder · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a debut!!!!!!!!!! This was such a slow burn..what a payoff kind of thriller for me…I loved all of the anaesthesiologist and behind the scenes hospital insights..the plot was scary, and that so isn’t my normal genre and I think I’ll be thinking about it for a good long time to come…I can’t believe how it all came together!!!!!!!!

[Lorraine Corbitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought it was very far fetched. Could not warm at all to the main character. Just did not enjoy - it was easy enough to read but plain silly at times!

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s difficult to believe the complex plotting and assured voice in All You Took From Me (Transit Lounge Publishing 2024) is from debut writer, Lisa Kenway. This novel reads as a more advanced writer would present a psychological thriller, from the ease of dialogue to the complicated threads of the mystery to the confident research that informs the narrative.

The tragedy of a single vehicle accident has left Clare Carpenter with no husband and no memory. The book opens when she wakes in the dim nightlight of a hospital room, familiar to her because of her work as an anaesthetist but also blurry and confused, because she can’t remember why she is lying in a bed in her own hospital. It quickly becomes apparent that she has sustained massive injuries, including memory loss, and that her husband has been killed in the crash. The great, gaping holes in her memory are spine-tingling and frightening from the first page, not only because of her natural anxious trepidation about not knowing what’s happening in her life, but also because of the strange man she sees skulking about her ward. He seems menacing, but is her imagination in overdrive? Is she hallucinating? Is the man even there at all?

Clare doesn’t take well to the role of patient rather than doctor. And as the extent of her injuries and the repercussions become apparent, her position as a medical specialist appears to be in jeopardy. The situation is worse when the police turn up to question her, not once, as might be expected, but multiple times, to the point that Clare believes they suspect her of some sort of foul play, or at least withholding knowledge about the accident. But once again, is this her imagination and her fractured memory playing games? Jumping at shadows? Seeing things that just aren’t there?

While allowed to rejoin the staff, with special considerations given her head trauma, and reduced responsibilities, Clare’s antennae continue to tell her something is ‘off,’ and her paranoia gets worse, not better. Her psychiatrist tries to help (or does she?), even attempting hypnosis, and her best friend Priya seems to have distanced herself from Clare for no reason she can comprehend.

Everything leads back to the love of her life, her husband Ray, and the life they led together. As the novel progresses, Clare catches hints and clues that her memory of that life and the reality may not be in sync. And as her memory returns to her in snatches of fractured snapshots, it becomes obvious that she clearly doesn’t remember Ray as well as she thought, that their relationship was not what she presumed, and that there may be actions of her own that she has relegated to the black hole of her mind.

She becomes particularly interested in a certain anaesthetic drug that she believes might allow her to access her missing memories, and some of the most interesting aspects of the book are her ethical and legal queries about using this drug, the problems in procuring it, the dangers of using it unsupervised, and whether it is doing her more harm than good. Kenway’s other job as an anaesthetist informs this aspect of the writing and research.

As with any good psychological thriller, the count of suspects, motives and victims rises and Clare must wrestle with the secrets her husband took to his grave, the uncomfortable and vaguely threatening stranger she is convinced is following her, and the bizarre facts she uncovers about Ray’s involvement in a cult-like medieval fight club. How does everything join together? Has Clare herself done something terrible that she can’t remember? Or was her husband not the dream man she remembers, but an abusive and secretive fraud who kept most of his life hidden from her, even when they were married?

Lots of tension, twists and unanswered questions move the plot along at a cracking pace, and the reader is as invested as Clare in finding answers. The resolution is shocking and while the narrative did begin to become a little unwieldy and unlikely, Kenway manages to pull it all together in the end. Clare’s distinct voice certainly lifts the novel into another realm – her humour and determination and sardonic attitude get us onside with her immediately and have us hoping and cheering her on.

[Veronica Strachan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant debut from an Australian author worth watching.
Kenway has cleverly wrapped this tense psychological thriller in the calm of the beautiful Blue Mountains and the chaos of a busy Sydney hospital. It struck me as the perfect alternatives to match the main character's - Clare Carpenter's - initial peace of memory loss with the sharp and unexpected discord that accompanies her new reality. Unexplained threats from strangers, odd conversations with friends, and an elusive past that's no longer being seen through rose-coloured glasses are just some of the twists and turns to keep you guessing.
The story prose is sharp and spare, zipping you through the mind of our amnesiac anaesthetist as she struggles to make sense of what happened, flouting medical and legal codes to get to her truth.
The action packed plot will have you turning the pages as quickly as you can. And as the pace cranks up, Clare's thoughts and behaviour get messier and more mesmerising. Even the reader doesn't know how much is truth and how much is delusion. Her mistrust and assumptions throw her into all sorts of strife as she crosses her own moral and ethical lines over and back.
Love the detail of the setting, the absolute plausibility of the plot, and the execution of a stunning climax. And the ending... well, enough said...
Kenway weaves a fantastic tale. Can't wait for the next one.

[Kyra Geddes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t read a lot of thrillers these days, but in reading ALL YOU TOOK FROM ME I was reminded of Patricia Cornwell’s hugely successful forensic medicine crime novels which I lapped up in the 90s. In place of Cornwell’s famous heroine, Kay Scarpetta - Medical Examiner, Lisa Kenway introduces us to Clare Carpenter, a tough-minded anaesthetist who is suffering from amnesia after a single-vehicle accident, and who is thrust into the dual role of widow and self-appointed detective.

In this page-turning, well-written psychological thriller, Lisa Kenway brings to bear her real life expertise as an anaesthetist and her longstanding interest in memory and consciousness. Where do our minds go, the author invites the reader to speculate, when we are put to ‘sleep’ during an operation? It’s a fascinating question and one which her rule-breaking protagonist explores to the extreme in her efforts to uncover the truth behind her husband’s death.

As a bonus, the author’s obvious love of the Australian bush shines through in her descriptions of its tranquil Blue Mountains setting, providing - for me, at least - a welcome contrast to the tension and, at times, violence which threaten to overwhelm Clare in both her past and present.

[Kelsey Rondel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy read.

I'm learning i quite like books that the characters have memory loss and their having to piece together what happened to them and how they got here..

I would have given it a four star rating but the storyline of her suddenly having this new love interest with a "friend" of her husband's just didn't feel that geniune. Like yeah he was teaching her how to battle with swords or whatever when her husband kept disappearing to "work" but she couldn't have been that desperate. Like he will find out sooner or later.

Or when she started testing out an anathestic drug to help her piece together her memory? And was stealing the equipment/drugs from her workplace (the hospital)... and was also administering it in the on call room upstairs at the hospital?? Like WHY would you do that.

Otherwise the twists were quite good. And making her seem like she was loosing the plot.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A debut Aussie psychological thriller, All You Took From Me (2024) by Lisa Kenway, is narrated by a doctor suffering from memory loss. Dr Clare Carpenter awakens from a coma with no memory of how she got here or what was told to her yesterday. Her husband was killed in a car accident, and she is unable to remember anything before or after the crash. As the police investigate, given the unknown blood on the steering wheel, Clare receives a warning to keep quiet and is being watched. Although a psychological thriller, it also incorporates elements of detective fiction, as Clare attempts to find answers despite her amnesia. A typical domestic noir with husband and wife's secret pasts and ever-increasing unknown danger. Despite its interesting premise, the seemingly unlikely mystery element and slow narrative make for a three star read rating. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without any inducement.

[Andrea Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

All You Took From Me, Lisa Kenway’s stellar debut psychological thriller, kept me riveted from page one.
Anesthetist Clare wakes from a coma after a car accident that killed her husband to find major holes in her memory. As she tries to fill them in, she receives threatening notes, visits from the police, and is stalked by a man who hovers just out of reach of the edge of her recall.
What follows is a deep dive into Clare’s emotional and professional lives, as she makes questionable choices to uncover the past.
Lisa paints the Blue Mountains and Sydney hospital settings to great effect. Her writing style is easy to read and compelling. Clare is an intriguing intelligent character who leaves a glimmer of doubt about just how badly the crash impacted her mental state. And there's plenty of action.
Highly recommended.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery surrounding the protagonist, Claire, had me hooked from the start!

Anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle car accident. She becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug can help her retrieve her memories. Claire becomes desperate and reckless; this is what I love to see in a character! Someone who will stop at nothing to know the truth, even if it means hurting themselves, their friends or their career in the process.

A secretive husband, a man following her, creepy texts and a mysterious club heighten the tension to another level!

I loved learning more about anesthesia. Claire’s family history was also intriguing, and this could be woven into another thriller alone! No pressure, Lisa

Full of paranoia and suspicion, this is a fantastic read

[Pru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clare, an anaesthetist, wakes up from a coma to find out she has sustained a brain injury resulting in amnesia and that her husband is dead. The few months prior to the car accident that caused all of these horrors, have been lost. The police have reason to believe that Clare knows more than she is letting on, but they are investigating much more than a crash. As Clare will try anything to get her memory back, including putting her job at risk, she realises that she is being tracked and may be in real danger.

Set between the Blue Mountains and a Sydney hospital, I was able to visualise and connect with the scenes. I didn't love Clare and often found her frustrating, but I absolutely enjoyed this book. It's a twisty psychological thriller that kept me guessing until the end.

[Melissa Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anaesthetist races to recover traumatic memories before she’s killed.

This thriller plunges into the depths of the doctor’s mind as, unable to trust the police, isolated from her JW family, and fearing exposure to her colleagues as dangerously unstable, she tries every method to trigger her own brain to reveal its secrets. What led to the crash, which left her husband dead, and a faceless stalker menacing her life?
This risk taking woman becomes more real and more reckless as we follow her crashing past rules and stumbling over the hints of her own guilt and folly, till all the answers are spat out at last.

[Michelle Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when a book leaves me thinking about it long after I've put it down. All You Took From Me is a compelling page-turner that kept me hooked from beginning to end. As a crime and thriller lover, I have pretty high expectations when reading this genre, and All You Took From Me didn't disappoint.

I was heavily invested in revealing the mysteries at the heart of this novel. When all the twists and turns were done, I was left remembering the clues that I had missed. A thoroughly satisfying read!

[Sarah Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading books set in Australia. Even looking in Sydney bookshops they’re only a fraction of the ones on sale. This caught my eye with its story of Clare, an anaesthetist living in the Blue Mountains and working in Sydney, struggling to recover her memories after a head injury in a car accident, where she also lost her husband. It’s a thriller with a whole lot of twists and a somewhat unusual story line that kept me reading.
The main character has an interesting background, a tougher woman than the characters I tend to find in books, it was a nice change.

[Sally Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thriller from an unusual angle!

It can sometimes feel like one has read all the tropes, so it is great to get pick up a book that approaches a story from a new angle. The author's medical background brings insight to the twist, and the story is very satisfying.

[Dani Netherclift · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unputdownable. I raced through this taut psychological thriller at breakneck speed, navigating twists and turns and revelations as I went. It is a very engaging read!