Local Woman Missing

If you’ve seen my past Top 10 lists, you know I love mysteries and thrillers. Especially during the pandemic, when I’ve compulsively read one after the other, I’ve focused on all the novels by a single author: Tana French, Ruth Ware, Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series. But I’d never read Mary Kubica until a colleague suggested I read her newest book, Local Woman Missing. After that breathtaking page-turner, I plan to binge-read all of her books. A young mother of a newborn disappears one night while going for a jog. A few weeks later, another woman in the same small town disappears, along with her young daughter, leaving behind a cryptic note. Eleven years later, the daughter reappears, severely damaged psychologically. Chapters alternate in time from then and now, and from different characters’ points of view, as the story slowly unfolds to show you the connections between characters—and how each is not exactly who they seem on the surface. Yes, that’s typical form for a good mystery, but in Kubica’s hands, it’s an extraordinary tale that will most likely be in my Top 10 list this year.