Missing-linc.com comprises a group of misfit sleuths scattered across the States. Their macabre passion is giving names to the unidentified dead. When Ellie Caine starts investigating the corpse known as the Boy in the Dress, the Boy’s killer decides to join the group. The closer they get to the truth, the closer he will get to them.
The Boy was Teddy Ryan. He was meant to have been killed in a car crash in the west of Ireland in 1989. Only he wasn’t. There is no grave in Galway and Teddy was writing letters from New York a year after he supposedly died. But one night he met a man in a Minnesota bar and vanished off the face of the earth.
Teddy’s nephew, Shaun, is no hero, but he is determined to solve the thirty-year-old mystery. He joins forces with the disparate members of Missing-linc to hunt down the killer. The only problem: the killer will be with them every step of the way . . .
When I heard Sarah Lotz was writing a crime novel, I have to admit I was more than a little intrigued. I’m a huge fan of her horror fiction. In fact, I’ll go further, I reckon The Three and Day Four are two of my favourite horror novels in the last ten years.
When a long-hidden family secret is un-covered, Shaun Ryan realises there is a further mystery that needs investigating. While some relatives want to leave the past firmly in the past, Shaun knows the more he tries to escape it the more he is caught up in answering the only question that matters – what became of his uncle Teddy? Anxious and unassuming, Shaun doesn’t seem to be the sort of person who wants to cause any fuss but there is a grim tenacity lurking just beneath his nervous exterior. This is a young man driven by the need to discover the truth. His journey leads him to connect with a curious group of individuals who spend their time searching for people who have disappeared.
The members of the Missing-linc forum all have reasons for doing what they do. It’s fascinating to discover how the online personas of characters like Ratking1, Rainbowbrite, Aqualung* and BobbieCowell compare to their real lives. I think the thing I found most interesting were the motivations that drive these people to try and uncover the truth, often on the behalf of those who can’t. There are a whole host of potential reasons why someone may want to help. It could be that they are seeking some form of escape from the pain of their own loss. Perhaps they are an amateur sleuth keen the help in any way they can. It could however be something a bit more sinister. There are those who exhibit a morbid sense of curiosity, very nearly voyeurism, that could easily become something far darker.
It’s the relationships in Missing Person that help to elevate the narrative into something exceptional. Lotz always excels in creating her characters. I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between Ratking1 and Rainbowbrite. They could not be more different from one another. Ratking1 is intensely private, almost to the point of introversion, while Rainbowbrite is endlessly positive and upbeat. It’s clear to see that one is the accelerator and the other is the brakes when it comes to their online existence.
There are chapters scattered through the plot that deal with events from the killer’s perspective and there is something genuinely compelling about these moments. Insight into their thought processes is mesmerising. The fact that some killers are able to so easily compartmentalise the darker elements of their personality makes them all the more terrifying.
Elsewhere on the internet, I’ve read opinions suggesting that the novel’s end is a trifle anti-climactic. I disagree wholeheartedly. Rather than being over the top or potentially mawkish, Lotz opts for a more low-key conclusion and I like this approach. There is a sense of closure for each of the characters that helps to flesh out each of their respective journeys. As I mentioned before, Sarah Lotz is an author who always excels when it comes to characterisation and that skill is certainly on display here. I love that each person we meet continues to evolve up until the very last page.
I would urge fans of this author’s horror writing to give this novel a shot. I feel that pigeon-holing Missing Person as a crime novel is a bit of a misnomer. It is just as dark as the author’s other works. In fact, it is made all the more sinister by the fact that it is far
more grounded than anything else the author has written. It is all too easy to believe that the plot of Missing Person could be one hundred percent real. The best authors are the one who can bridge the gap between genres and not miss a beat. I’ve read a few in my time and I have to say that it is always a pleasure to discover another who makes, what is likely the trickiest of skills, looks so effortless. Missing Person is a superior thriller that with the blackest of hearts. Lotz proves yet again, if proof were needed, that her writing is always worthy of your attention.
Missing Person is published by Hodder and available from 5th September. Highly recommended.
My musical recommendation to accompany Missing Person is the haunting soundtrack to Zodiac by David Shire. Music from a movie about one of the most famous serial killers feels like the ideal fit for Sarah Lotz latest novel.
*Extra points for a Jethro Tull reference.
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