Why So Many Missing Persons??
The last two books I have read involved missing persons. All The Colors of the Dark involves many missing people, including, for a time, the main character. Heartwood only has one missing person. The thing about both of these books is that I could not put them down. I had to read and read until I found out about the missing person. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil either book for you. Perhaps authors are on to something. Write a story about a missing person or people and you have the reader hooked, right? Below are some additional titles that involve missing people.
So Far Gone, by Jess Walter, introduces the main character at a family gathering. Unfortunately, he gets in a fight with his son-in-law and runs off to an ‘off the grid’ location to escape having to deal with the fallout. Fast forward several years later, and his grandchildren show up at his door. Of course he takes them in, but then they are kidnapped. Sound like a crazy romp? It is!! While maintaining a poignant theme, The author injects humor and goodwill to make this book, according to critics, another ‘impossible to put down’ book.
The novel Fox, by Joyce Carol Oates, is not as gentle as Walter’s book. In this book, Oates gets into more sinister themes such as how a sociopath can decieve entire groups of people and ruin lives in the process. The missing person here is a charasmatic teacher at an elite private school. Two people discover the teacher’s car in a ravine and an unidentified body nearby. As a result of the search for the teacher, the town uncovers secrets that change everything! A reviewer for the New York Times calls the book ‘impressive and unsettling.’ Are you ready for such a read? I will most likely pass…..
A bit lighter read is a book by Jennifer Trevelyan entitled A Beautiful Family. So many times we see a family photo on Instagram or Facebook. and we press the prescribed comment “A Beautiful Family”. Right? Well, a beautiful family may easily have issues–disfunction, for one. I’ve heard people say, “What family isn’t disfunctional?” Probably right! In this book, a mom, dad, and three children are on vacation at their beach house in New Zealand in 1980. The 10-year old ‘little sister’ tells the story, and it involves her quest to solve a mystery of a little child that went missing two years prior to the family’s vacation. This isn’t a Ramona type book. Readers report that they enjoy a child’s point of view. It certainly seems to be another page turner and a good summer read.
