Just Another Missing Person

Books | Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural

3.8

Gillian McAllister

"Twisty and complex, with unexpected turns...and characters you really root for."--Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author From the author of the Reese's Book Club Pick and the New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes a new heart-stopping thriller in which a missing-person case unravels deeper, darker secrets that lead a detective to an impossible moral choice. Not everyone who is lost should be found... Twenty-two-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day...and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again. Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get. Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn't a gun, or a knife: it's a secret. Her worst one. And her family's safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia - and must frame somebody else for her murder. If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do? This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a clever look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.

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More Details:

Author

Gillian McAllister

Pages

368

Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

Published Date

2023-08

ISBN

0063320630 9780063320635

Community ReviewsSee all

"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️"

Angelica Ashley

"Finally got good the last 20 pages"

Lisa k

"I listened to this one so maybe it was me not fully listening but I wasn’t into it. 🤷‍♀️"

Melanie Schmitz

"It took me a while to get invested in the story and characters, but once I was, it was worth it. I loved the multiple twists and adored the neat way the plot was tied up. I wish I had liked the characters more; they felt flat to me, especially Julia. Her main personality trait, in my opinion, was that she had a child. Although I really liked that the story was told from the viewpoint of three different parents, it felt like that was all Julia was. McAllister tried to give Julia her own conflict with her cheating husband, but it didn’t serve to flesh Julia out anymore; it just felt like another plot end that had to be tied up. It also bored me that all the parents ended up doing the right thing in their own ways. McAllister was playing with the morality of being a parent, but only one of the parents actually broke the “moral code” of doing anything to protect their children. The mother that did (slightly) betray her own child ended up not facing any consequences, so the theme fell flat. Finally, the random kidnapping at the end and subsequent deus ex machina of the revealed mastermind suddenly being shot felt pointless to me. Why reveal the big bad behind everything and skyrocket the stakes when he’s just going to die WITHOUT JULIA EVEN SEEING like three pages later? Overall, I think this book was good. I do think it could’ve used a bit more polishing and a few more edits before being published, but can you blame a writer that churns out a book a year for phoning it in every once in a while?"

Lauren Fahrner

"Unsettling, will make you squirm. The internal family issues are dramatic. This is not a beach read, it is work; there are too many characters and POVs. I can’t count the number of times I used x-ray to try to keep them straight. But the ending is worth the work. "

Robin Eschliman

"Just finished this book and WOW! Turns and twists throughout. Just when you think you know what’s going on everything changes. MUST READ!"

danielle romano

"This one kept me guessing the whole time - am every time I thought I had it figured out there was a new twist. Really liked it. The last twist was the best!"