Title: Local Woman Missing
Author: Pam Jenoff
Publication: May 18, 2021
Publisher: Park Row Books
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 290
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
People don’t just disappear without a trace…
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.
Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find…
In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I have read a book by Mary Kubica before and it wasn’t my all time favorite, although it wasn’t bad. I just didn’t fall in love with it. I saw this book cross my screen and new I had to give her one more go to see if she could hook me in, and boy… did she.
Local Woman Missing follows a few characters as women go missing in a suburban neighborhood where kids play and crime is not something they really have. My all time favorite character was Kate. She was the neighbor of one of the missing women, Meredith, and is married to Bea, a hard to scare, no nonsense having awesome lady. These women need to be my neighbor! I adore them. I’m always suspicious of everyone and literally everyone in this story had my spider-senses tingling at one point or another while reading. Although, usually I suspect the husband, and I did not suspect him at all.
Kubica’s writing in this novel kept me on the edge of my seat. I was anxious and jumpy throughout. I found myself turning on the light when I was reading with the lights off because I got scared at all the shadows. Each character was an onion you had to peal back layer by layer to find out their intentions. Each one had done something or acted a certain way to make me think they could be the possible culprit.
This book jumps from different perspectives. You go from Leo, the son of one of the missing women who is also the brother of the missing child that went missing with his mother. Then you have Kate, again, married to Bea and next door neighbor to missing mom Meredith. Last we get Meredith’s perspective. We also go from current time to 11 years before when they went missing. This would usually annoy me when reading. I’m not a fan of jumping around, but I really think the way Kubica wrote it increased the intensity and suspense in this fill. You saw the puzzle pieces clicking together in your head as you jumped around and read from different perspectives and characters. I truly enjoyed this book so much. It might just make my top 10 of 2021. We shall see.
If you love suspense thrillers, then Local Woman Missing is definitely the book for you. I’m a huge fan of Mary Kubica and am looking forward to her next book now! A true high intensity suspense novel that will have all mystery lovers on the edge of their seat!
STAR RATING: 5/5
Pick up your copy of Local Woman Missing on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and check your local bookstore. Also make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave feedback for the author when you are finished. You can check out more from author Mary Kubica on her website HERE. You can check out my review of her book When the Lights Go Out on our website HERE.
