Book Review: Missing by Monty Marsden

(Click on 'Preview' to read the first chapter)

Book: Missing 

Author: Monty Marsden 

Pages: 266

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: 2.5 hours 

Publisher: Aria

Plot Summary: In a little village in Lombardy it’s a cold November morning when Ami, a little girl of Senegalese origin, steps out of her house to go to school ... and never comes back. As soon as her father raises the alarm, a frantic search begins. 

The investigation is led by Police Commissioner Sensi. His men immediately find a trail to follow, but it soon proves to lead nowhere. 

Three months after the sad aftermath of the event, the Police Commissioner Sensi decides to go and visit Dr Claps, an old friend and a renowned criminologist, who guesses from his first few words the real reason for the visit. It’s not just about Ami; she’s not the only little girl to have disappeared.

Things I Liked:

1. The premise is really interesting- several missing girls of African origin in Italy and a perverted serial killer, who is behind these murders. Even though, this is a difficult-to-read about topic, it was handled quite sensitively in the book with little to no details furnished about these heinous acts, apart form how the little girls were taken, of course. 

2. The characters in the book are rather nice and are well-etched even in the 266 -odd pages. You get a good sense of the detectives, of Dr. Claps and even of Ami's father, who is out to get some revenge and find the pervert, who killed his daughter. I like it when we get to know a little more about characters in crime thrillers! 

3. The investigation process is nicely crafted as well. The way each victim is uncovered and all the cases are linked is interesting and there are some good red herrings thrown in there as well. 

4. The book is quite fast-paced and there are pretty much no time-wasters or random fillers in this book, which is something that I really like in my crime thrillers! 

Things I Didn't Like:

1. The last few chapters were dragged along quite unnecessarily, but even that's not really an issue but the book would've been a solid 5 stars without that. 

Rating: 4/5