Review: Local Woman Missing

 

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

☆☆☆☆

Fiction — Mystery

A woman goes missing. Several weeks later, another woman goes missing, along with her 6-year-old daughter. They lived only a few miles from the first woman. Eleven years later, the daughter shows up, having escaped a childhood in captivity.

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED? This question kept me up late every single night for the last week or so.

I was so focused on what happened that I didn’t even bother trying to figure out who. The pool of suspects is quite small if limited to just the characters you know well.

There are several main POVs: 

– Meredith, the missing mother, starting about six weeks before her disappearance (ultimately reaching that fateful day at the climax).

– Kate, a neighbor, who joins the search for Meredith and her daughter (Delilah) when she’s first noticed missing.

– Leo, Delilah’s brother, in the present. This is mostly second person as he addresses Delilah and tries to understand her with her psychological scars.

The narrative is so tantalizing as it gets closer and closer to explaining everything. But on the way it’s a story about people and what motivates them and how they deal with mistakes and make choices. It was very hard to put down. I did not guess the ending at all.

I wish there were more details on what Delilah went through. And I was really mad at Meredith for neglecting Leo for a job she didn’t really need.

I assume the text will go through a final proofing before publication. It had some weird formatting in my copy.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. It was the weirdest thing: They emailed me out of the blue and offered me the book. I wasn’t even a NetGalley member. I don’t know how they found me or why I was chosen. I was suspicious at first.

*   *   *

Language: Some moderate language

Sexual Content: Mostly implied; off-screen

Violence: Moderate amount of violence but not very graphic

Harm to Animals: None

Harm to Children: Kidnapping and abuse that is kept vague; bullying.

Other (Triggers): Drunken driving; a woman feels violated after a pap smear.