Title: The Missing
Author: C.L. Taylor
Genre/Audience: Psychological thriller, mystery, adult
Publication: William Morrow, 2017
Source: For review, TLC Book Tours
I’ve always been drawn to stories about missing people, so the premise of this book really interested me.
The story centers around the Wilkinson family and their missing 15 year old son Billy who disappeared from home in the middle of the night. For six months, the family has received no answers and have been left wondering where he is and who is at fault. Each member of the family, including mom Claire, dad Mark, and brother Jake feels guilt and as if they’re to blame. Everyone is hiding secrets from one another which all start to unravel as Claire begins to feel like she’s losing her mind on the search for her son.
I have to admit that I sometimes struggle with British literature. I have a hard time acclimating to their slang and language, and often have a hard time immersing myself in the stories because of it. This was definitely the case for me at the beginning of this novel which started out pretty slowly for me as a result.
About a hundred pages in or so, I finally found myself drawn in, which was a good thing seeing as the book is nearly 500 pages. At that point, I had adjusted to the language and had looked up some of the unfamiliar terms. I was becoming more familiar with the story and the characters and was watching as their world crumbled and their lies began to come to light. Once I hit the halfway mark or so, I couldn’t put it down and found myself staying up late to race through the chapters.
This family is highly dysfunctional and such a mess. The secrets they hide from each other are shocking and astounding. I wanted to keep reading so I could learn more and more. The chapters tended to be on the short side which helped me speed through the story. I also had no idea what had happened to Billy and wanted to race to the end so I could finally find out.
Though I admit that this book and I had a slow start together, it was worth it to keep reading as it continually got better and better. I’d give this a solid 4 of 5 stars and would recommend it to other mystery and thriller lovers, particularly those who are intrigued by missing persons cases like I am.
