Another thriller with “wait a second” twist endings, Local Woman Missing is a true thriller that had me asking, “what is happening?” over and over.
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica is the story of a small town, grappling with the disappearance of two women and a little girl both when the disappearances happen and 11 years later, when the little girl, now seventeen, returns. The story is told between three rotating narrators: local mom Meredith, in the weeks leading up to her disappearance; Kate, the friendly neighbor, in the week’s following Meredith and her daughter’s disappearance; and Leo, brother of the kidnapped girl, Delilah, now back and full of secrets. This book has both predictable twists and some you could never see coming.
The pros: Pretty easy to read and follow, even with the changing narrators. In fact, I enjoyed knowing things earlier in the book that some of the characters themselves didn’t know– we call that dramatic irony, and I eat it up– because it kept the stakes high and helped create this sense of impending doom, in a good way. I enjoyed the twists. Some were a little predictable, but the revelations surrounding Meredith and Delilah’s disappearances were totally unexpected, and the sheer number of red herrings kept the reader from figuring things out too early.
I think the tone in this book was written beautifully as well. All the little details like the weather and the MANY instances of foreshadowing all come together so perfectly, and I can always appreciate an author who manages to capture different types of female main characters well. Meredith’s job as a doula compared to Kate’s narration was interesting to flip between.
The cons: Even though this one was easy to read, it wasn’t necessarily paced that way. I did feel like all of the action in this book happened in the second half of the story, and Leo’s chapters felt somewhat dispensable entirely. I would’ve preferred to read the modern settings from his father’s perspective. Mary Kubica does a good job of keeping the reader from figuring that out though.
This book felt like getting the answer to a three-part riddle up front and then having to sit through the actual riddle itself to see how we get to that answer. It definitely wasn’t very deep, but it was fun to get antsy waiting to figure out how all the pieces fit together. It was suspenseful enough to be an interesting read, but it was still surface-level enough to follow without getting confused or lost.
My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Book Club rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
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Danielle Says... 