All the Missing Girls

Starred review from April 4, 2016
YA author Miranda (Soulprint) makes her adult debut with this fiendishly plotted thriller. Family business brings Philadelphia prep school counselor Nicolette “Nic” Farrell back to her hometown of Cooley Ridge, N.C., a place still fraught with the unsolved disappearance of her best friend, Corinne Prescott, right after their high school graduation a decade earlier. Nic unexpectedly finds herself still attracted to high school sweetheart Tyler, whose current girlfriend, Annaleise Carter, disappears the day after Annaleise texted police with questions about Corinne’s case. As Nic struggles to figure out what really happened to Corinne, who her demented father claims to have seen, she must also face some bitter truths—about her provocative BFF and herself. Miranda convincingly conjures a haunted setting that serves as a character in its own right, but what really makes this roller-coaster so memorable is her inspired use of reverse chronology, so that each chapter steps further back in time, dramatically shifting the reader’s perspective. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency.

April 15, 2016
Miranda's thriller, told backward over a two-week period, finds heroine Nicolette "Nic" Farrell back home in Cooley Ridge to solve the 10-year-old case of her missing best friend, Corrine, as well as the fresh disappearance of neighbor Annaleise Carter. With a slew of thrillers about disappearing women (inevitably called "girls" though they're adults) coming this spring and summer, Miranda (Soulprint, 2015, etc.) has a lot of competition. The gimmick of telling the story backward causes confusion more than it builds suspense, and the characters, including Nic; her rich, mostly offstage fiance, Everett; her ex-boyfriend Tyler, who happened to be dating Annaleise at the time of her disappearance--an icky twist--her brother, Daniel, and his pregnant wife, Laura, are all unmemorable figures with no real feelings or motivations. The one character who does elicit sympathy is Nic's father, forced to leave his home because of dementia. Yet it's because of his statements that he knows about a missing girl that the plot is set in motion--and how often does a small-town police force reopen a case because an old man mutters something, and no one can figure out if it's about his neighbor or his daughter's former best friend, now gone for 10 years? The chronology is frustrating, the characters are bland, and the plotting is sloppy. Feel free to give these missing girls a miss.

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Starred review from June 1, 2016

Nicolette Farrell, placing her life in Philadelphia on hold, embarks on a summer visit to her childhood hometown of Cooley Ridge, NC, to help her brother prepare their family home for sale. The trip forces Nic to recall her abrupt exit from Cooley Ridge a decade ago, following the mysterious (and still unsolved) disappearance of her best friend, Corinne. Nic spends several weeks immersed in clearing the house, visiting her dementia-ridden father, and meeting people from her past. She soon discovers that another local girl has gone missing. As the investigation intensifies and the two cases intersect, Nic starts to question everything she once believed, including the innocence of those in her inner circle. VERDICT YA author Miranda makes her adult fiction debut with this carefully crafted and riveting thriller that is narrated in reverse chronological order, a tense and unusual reading experience that both disorients and intrigues. Readers will obsessively read backward day by day to uncover gradually the surprise ending.--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Miranda, known for her successful young-adult thrillers, has crafted a darkly nostalgic adult debut sure to draw new readers and please her YA base. Nicolette Farrell left Cooley Ridge, North Carolina, 10 years ago in the wake of her best friend Corinne's disappearance. Now a school counselor in Philadelphia and engaged to a successful attorney, Nic reluctantly returns to Cooley Ridge to handle her father's affairs after a stroke sends him to a nursing home. With Nic's arrival, the fallout surrounding Corinne's disappearance resurfaces as if no time has passed, confronting her with unresolved feelings about Corinne, a dangerous attraction to her first love, and a growing cloud of suspicion surrounding her family's role in Corinne's disappearance. Then Annaleise Carter, who provided the alibi for Nic and her friends the night Corinne disappeared, goes missing, and Nic scrambles to understand the clues she's unearthed implicating her loved ones. Miranda takes a risk by telling the story backward, but it pays off with an undroppable thriller, plenty of romantic suspense, and a fresh take on the decades-old teenage-murder theme.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)