Songs for the Missing

Starred review from September 22, 2008
O'Nan proves that uncertainty can be the worst punishment of all in this unflinching look at an unraveling family. In the small town of Kingsville, Ohio, 18-year-old Kim Larsen—popular and bound for college in the fall—disappears on her way to work one afternoon. Not until the next morning do her parents, Ed and Fran, and 15-year-old sister, Lindsay, realize Kim is missing. The lead detective on the case tells the Larsens that since Kim is an adult, she could, if the police find her, ask that the police not disclose her location to her parents. When Kim's car later turns up in nearby Sandusky, Ed, desperate to help, joins the official search. Meanwhile, Fran stays home putting all her energy into community fund-raisers, and Lindsay struggles to maintain a normal life. Through shifting points of view, chiefly those of the shell-shocked parents and the moody Lindsay, O'Nan raises the suspense while conveying the sheer torture of what it's like not to know what has happened to a loved one. When—if ever—do you stop looking? 6-city author tour.

Emily Janice Card helps us zoom in on the family and friends left behind when 18-year-old Kim disappears. Her mother, Fran, is capable and busy, and Card gives her an almost-professional terseness that cracks occasionally when she turns to her husband for comfort. Husband Ed has a gruffer voice, but there's more tenderness and sensitivity in Card's expression of him. Their 15-year-old, Lindsay, uses IM and computer games to stay aloof, but Card conveys her internal feelings of emptiness and confusion. With tension pervading all the story's viewpoints, Card voices the characters as they adjust to grief and sadness, and attempt to resume their lives as best they can. S.W (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine