Thank you to William Morrow, #partner, for an advanced copy of Just Another Missing Person in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: August 1, 2023
Summary:
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.
22-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 smart 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.
My thoughts:
Gillian McAllister is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved her last book, Wrong Place Wrong Time and I think I might have loved this new one even more and that’s saying something as that last book was so clever and unique, I wasn’t sure anything could beat it!
I loved how suspenseful and twisty this police procedural was. It went in a direction I was totally not expecting and kept me on my toes the entire time. This is definitely a case of nothing is what it seems, and I found that once I started reading it, I could not put it down. This one needs your full attention so as to not miss anything…the little clues start coming hard and fast early on and it’s easy to miss something if you aren’t paying attention.
I could not read this book fast enough, especially as I got past the halfway point. After that, I literally inhaled the book, not stopping until I finished it. The twists just kept coming all the way up until the very end and I loved it! This is the type of book that you finish reading and you want to go back and start reading it all over again because it’s just that good!
This book asks the question, “How far would you go for those you love?” The issue of morality comes up a few times and it’s hard not to put yourself in some of the characters’ shoes throughout the book as a result. I loved that we get such full backstories on all the main characters, allowing us to really understand what it was that they were struggling with. It made their situations feel more real and relatable rather than being given just a surface level explanation.
I loved this book and will be recommending to anyone I know that loves a good thriller! If you like books that keep you guessing until the very end, this one is for you!
