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A review by outsmartyourshelf
Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When a 22-year-old woman goes missing, the detective who catches the case is determined to find her. Olivia is captured on CCTV entering a dead-end alley & after that she seemingly disappears into thin air. This is the second case of a missing young woman that Julia has worked on recently, but the first woman, Sadie, was never found. Julia feels guilty over this as she knows her eye wasn't on the ball due to an incident involving her daughter, Genevieve & she vows to do better with Olivia's case. As she heads out to go to the house where Olivia had recently moved to, she is panicked to find a masked man sat in the back of her car. He hands her a bag containing a cigarette butt & a glass & tells her that if she wants her (& Genevieve's) secrets kept under wraps, she needs to frame someone called Matthew James for Olivia's murder. Can Julia find out what happened to Olivia & prevent a possibly innocent man from being blamed without endangering herself & her daughter?
I really enjoyed the author's "Wrong Place Wrong Time" so requesting this ARC was a no-brainer. The first half was a bit slow & I didn't really enjoy it much due to the main character. This is a police detective of experience & yet when she is being blackmailed & forced to frame Matthew James, Julia immediately starts 1) trying to get CPS to charge him for murder with no body found, 2) missing vital avenues of evidence, 3) accessing online records & recordings & leaving a digital trace of what she was doing - in short, acting so squirrely that all her colleagues notice there is something not quite right. Surely the opposite of what she would have wanted when trying to protect her daughter.
It also bothered me that the evidence against Matthew was basically a cigarette butt & fingerprints on a glass - both found in the missing girl's room. Now, maybe I've watched too much CSI, but it struck me as strange that nobody pointed out (even Matthew's solicitor) that the only DNA evidence at the scene was found on portable items & that his fingerprints or DNA (not even a stray hair) were not found anywhere else in the room or indeed the house, & that those items could easily have been planted (which indeed they were). None of the above is a spoiler by the way, it's all laid out very early on.
The second half of the book actually saved it though. There were some good twists & the main plot line itself was very well done. I did find it a bit annoying how easily Julia forgave her husband for cheating with a colleague after the memorable line of (I'm paraphrasing) "I was so drunk, it could have been anyone". Well, I mean, that's ok then?! Verdict: first half slow & MC was difficult to empathise with, but the second half pulled it round with some well-timed twists.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Random House/Michael Joseph, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
I really enjoyed the author's "Wrong Place Wrong Time" so requesting this ARC was a no-brainer. The first half was a bit slow & I didn't really enjoy it much due to the main character. This is a police detective of experience & yet when she is being blackmailed & forced to frame Matthew James, Julia immediately starts 1) trying to get CPS to charge him for murder with no body found, 2) missing vital avenues of evidence, 3) accessing online records & recordings & leaving a digital trace of what she was doing - in short, acting so squirrely that all her colleagues notice there is something not quite right. Surely the opposite of what she would have wanted when trying to protect her daughter.
It also bothered me that the evidence against Matthew was basically a cigarette butt & fingerprints on a glass - both found in the missing girl's room. Now, maybe I've watched too much CSI, but it struck me as strange that nobody pointed out (even Matthew's solicitor) that the only DNA evidence at the scene was found on portable items & that his fingerprints or DNA (not even a stray hair) were not found anywhere else in the room or indeed the house, & that those items could easily have been planted (which indeed they were). None of the above is a spoiler by the way, it's all laid out very early on.
The second half of the book actually saved it though. There were some good twists & the main plot line itself was very well done. I did find it a bit annoying how easily Julia forgave her husband for cheating with a colleague after the memorable line of (I'm paraphrasing) "I was so drunk, it could have been anyone". Well, I mean, that's ok then?! Verdict: first half slow & MC was difficult to empathise with, but the second half pulled it round with some well-timed twists.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Random House/Michael Joseph, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Infidelity