|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Darby McCormick spends her working life dealing with sick and twisted individuals; she works serial killer cases. Her home life isn't wonderful either, as her mother is slowly dying of cancer. So already we know that this isn't going to be a light and fluffy mystery. And we are so right. Darby's current case is the kidnapping of Carol Cranmore. Darby and her partner Jackson 'Coop' Cooper find their case is part of a much larger crime when Darby rescues Rachel Swanson. Rachel has been missing for five years or so. When Darby finds her under the Cranmore family's porch, Rachel is emaciated, scarred, and pretty feral. She is terrified of the man from whom she has escaped, and is convinced that he will find her. Darby and Coop, following police procedures, establish that Rachel and Carol were kidnapped by the same man. At some point, the FBI steps in, because they know that man as The Traveler, a serial killer who has left bodies all over the country. The FBI entering the case brings back awful memories for Darby. As a teenager, she witnessed something which brought her and two friends to the attention of The Traveler, although nobody knew him by that name then. One of the two friends is dead, and the other has been missing for decades. The impact on Darby is considerable, both then and now. It doesn't help that the guy the FBI sends is the same man who worked her case. She trusts him, because of the past, and she can't trust him, because he's FBI taking over her case. Darby is torn on so many levels in THE MISSING, it's a wonder she can function. She's really an amazing woman. Chris Mooney has mastered the pacing, the timing and the tension-building necessary to write a good thriller. Darby and her cohorts are a very human group of people, all flawed, mostly likeable. What takes THE MISSING out of the realm of the ordinary thriller is the twist Mooney hands his readers in the final chapters. Admittedly, thrillers of this sub-genre (fem-jep) are not my favorite reading material. I found some of the plot premises to be unlikely, although certainly not impossible. But the ending . . . oh, it made me squirm. I won't forget it, I don't like it (on a personal level, not in terms of the writing), but I won't forget it. And it's so true to the characters – that's what takes this out of the ordinary for me.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, February 2007
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
