Book Review The Missing by Monty Marsden

32701048Title: Missing

Author: Monty Marsden

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Age Group: Adult (18+)

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The search for a missing child reveals she is not the only one… A gripping thriller for fans of Jeffrey Deaver.
In a little village in Lombardy it’s a cold November morning when Ami, a little girl of Senegalese origin, steps out of her house to go to school … and never comes back. As soon as her father raises the alarm, a frantic search begins. The investigation is led by Police Commissioner Sensi. His men immediately find a trail to follow, but it soon proves to lead nowhere. Three months after the sad aftermath of the event, the Police Commissioner Sensi decides to go and visit Dr Claps, an old friend and a renowned criminologist, who guesses from his first few words the real reason for the visit. It’s not just about Ami; she’s not the only little girl to have disappeared.

In Missing, Ami, a little girl of Senegalese origin, goes to school one morning, and never comes back. CCTV reveals her walking to the bus stop, missing the bus… and then she vanishes into thin air. Months go by, with a frantic police team trying to find her, but all trails end up dead. Even worse, more girls are found dead, killed over the course of many years, all of them similar of age and ethnicity, all of them missing their pinky finger.

Sensi, the police commander in charge of the case, asks the help of his old friend, Dr. Claps, who used to be a renowned criminologist before a run-in with a serial killer made him lose the ability to speak in proper sentences. Now, he’s revalidating, but when Sensi confronts him with the case, Claps has no choice but to do what his heart and soul tell him – help find whoever did this to those little girls, and make them pay.

The books is told from multiple POVs, but it works quite well. I didn’t really feel like I could crawl into Sensi’s mind, but I understood Claps’ actions just fine. The chapters about Elaji were the weakest in my opinion. The killer’s POV could’ve been left out too for me – I didn’t feel like it added much, and actually diminished the action.

I liked the twists, how it all connected, and how well all loose ends were tied up in the end. For a debut, this was a remarkable, stunning book. However, I couldn’t give it a 5 star rating – the characters were just too difficult to connect to (I only ever really could connect to Claps, none of the others) and the writing was a little choppy here and there (which could be due to it being a translation). Nevertheless, it was an intriguing read, and if you enjoy police procedurals, thrillers or mysteries, I recommend you check this one out.

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