By Dominique Tassell
I picked up Where the Missing Go by Emma Rowley from our local library on a whim, and the mystery has stuck with me since.
In this unpredictable novel, a mother who works at a charity helpline for missing teens receives a desperate call—from her own daughter.
For the past two years, she has recognised the painful truth that her daughter, Sophie, doesn’t want to be found.
The police have stopped investigating. Sophie went missing at age 15, but she’s sent postcards home insisting that she’s fine.
To fill the space in her increasingly empty days, Kate volunteers at Message in a Bottle, where runaways can leave messages for loved ones, no questions asked.
But one night a call comes through, with a voice that Kate instantly recognises as her child.
Those around Kate are convinced her grief is getting to her, but she knows what she heard.
She also knows that someone has been watching her. Worse, she knows they’ve been in her house.
This novel shows just how far a mother will go to protect their child and will keep you guessing until the end.
Emma Rowley’s writing does a good job at keeping you so focussed on the mother’s anguish that you see the clues through her eyes, and miss the same things she does.
While it’s not a perfect novel, with a few spelling and grammar mistakes that pulled me out of the story for a second, it’s still an easy crime read I would recommend.
It has a relatively slow build-up but accelerates with such force you’ll be hooked.
Instead of one big reveal, this novel has a couple scattered throughout which left me desperate to know what the next reveal would be without getting convoluted.
Combined with relatively short, snappy chapters, it was an easy novel to breeze through.
After reading this I’ve added Emma Rowley’s other novel, You Can Trust Me, to my to-read list. Both novels are available at Southern Downs Regional Council libraries.
If you like this novel, you might also like some of Megan Miranda’s novels.
Some of her novels available at the library include All The Missing Girls, The Last House Guest, The Perfect Stranger, and What A Quiet Place.
All The Missing Girls is a personal favourite that I highly recommend.
You can look through the library catalogue online a southerndowns.spydus.com, and check the availability of or reserve books.
