Missing Person

July 8, 2019
In 1996, a dead white male with a cranial fracture is found on the outskirts of Millar, Minn., in this disappointing thriller from Lotz (The White Road). The unidentified murder victim, who’s wearing “a pink prom-style dress,” is nicknamed the Boy in the Dress. Ellen Caine, a stay-at-home mom who lives close to where the body was discovered, takes an interest in the case; she belongs to an online forum devoted to identifying “the remains of missing people.” But no progress on giving him a name is made until 2017, when a stranger tells Shaun Ryan, who works in an Irish bookstore, that Shaun’s late uncle, Teddy, didn’t die in a car accident two decades earlier, as Shaun believed; instead, he traveled to the U.S. before dropping out of sight. Shaun’s online request for information reaches Ellen, who works with her forum colleagues to determine whether Teddy is the Boy in the Dress. Early on, it’s clear that one of them is hiding some dark secrets, but Lotz fails to generate much suspense en route to the flat climax. In previous books, she’s been better at giving her characters depth. Hopefully, she’ll return to form next time.

July 15, 2019
A missing person case gets upgraded to murder when the members of an online forum turn to sleuthing. For 20 years, Shaun believed his uncle Teddy was dead after he left Ireland rather mysteriously and cut ties with his siblings. So when a stranger shows up, claiming that Teddy is alive and was last heard from in New York, Shaun is nonplussed. Still, he's curious enough to post a picture on the internet looking for information, where it's picked up by the members of a missing person site who immediately recognize Teddy as "The Boy in the Dress," found murdered in Minnesota nearly 20 years before, wearing a pink prom dress. The narrative follows Shaun; the website admin, Chris, who has personal reasons to want to solve these cases; website moderator Ellie, who has previously gotten in trouble for getting carried away with her sleuthing; and website enthusiast Pete, who claims to be a former cop and sets up a GoFundMe to bring Shaun to the United States. As the group begins to bond by working the case, someone is manipulating the situation for their own protection; someone doesn't want the truth about the boy in the dress to come to light--and might be willing to kill to keep their secrets. Lotz's (The White Road, 2017, etc.) previous novels have hardly been short on either terror or drama; this one is curiously lacking in both. Instead, it follows the slow progress of the investigation, moving appropriately to emphasize the mundanity, perhaps, but devoid in the end of true mystery or suspense. The characters form a likable band of misfits who deserve a more exciting plot. Perhaps there'll be a second chance in a sequel? A legitimate but hardly original moral: Be careful whom you trust on the internet.

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September 1, 2019

Shaun Ryan leads a quiet, nondescript life in Wicklow, Ireland, but wishes he could gather the courage (and the funds) to leave for somewhere more exciting. A man named Johnny disrupts his placid existence by claiming that his long-dead uncle Teddy has really been in the United States, which throws Shaun into a search for kin that might accept and claim him. His remaining family refuse to do more than admit that they have lied about Teddy's supposed death for more than 20 years and intimidate Shaun into dropping his search. After linking Teddy to an unidentified body found in the States, Shaun joins an online community of amateur sleuths to track down the truth of what happened to his uncle. VERDICT Lotz's (The White Road) clever novel includes a judicious use of formats such as messaging transcripts and web comments to move along the plot while providing insights into the Missing-Linc.com crew. Suggested for fans of authors such as Ruth Ware, Jennifer McMahon, Gillian Flynn, and Nic Joseph.--Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
Introverted Irish bookseller Shaun Ryan had been told that his Uncle Teddy Ryan died in Galway years earlier. But when an old friend of Teddy's reveals that he left Ireland for New York, Shaun uncovers his family's lies and starts looking for Teddy through Missing-linc.com, a website moderated by wheelchair-bound Christine Guzman in Nevada that matches unidentified bodies with missing people. With only a blurry photo of Teddy to work with, Chris suspects that he's the boy in the dress, a young man found dead in a pink prom dress years earlier. The case has been an obsession for Chris' co-moderator, Ellie Caine, since the body was found not far from where she lives in Minnesota with her husband and twin sons. But, as we know from the start, the small core of Missing-linc members who work on the case includes Teddy's murderer, whose mantra is, You're not a serial killer if you've only killed two people. In a narrative sprinkled with threads of texts, Lotz delves into her characters' backgrounds, clarifying the obsessive behavior that drives some of them. A satisfying thriller that's both quirky and macabre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)