The Missing Ones

Edwin Hill

Aug 2019 · A Hester Thursby Mystery Book 2 · Kensington Books

About this ebook

“Twists that’ll just take your breath away. A salty, stormy and seductive read.”
—Mario Giordano, author of Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna

Finisterre Island, off the coast of Maine, is beautiful and remote—the kind of place tourists love to visit. But not everyone is welcome. A dilapidated Victorian house has become home to a group of squatters and junkies, and strangers have a habit of bringing trouble. A young boy disappeared during the summer, and though he was found safely, the incident stirred suspicion among locals. Now another child is missing. Summoned to the island by a cryptic text, Hester Thursby discovers a community cleaning up from a devastating storm—and uncovers a murder.
 
Soon Hester begins to connect the crime and the missing children. And as she untangles the secrets at the center of the small community, she finds grudges and loyalties that run deep, poised to converge with a force that will once again shake her convictions about the very nature of right and wrong . . .
 
 “Intense. . . . Hill is adept at building compassion for his characters in a tight-knit social web while implicating them in dark thoughts and actions. He remains a writer to watch.”
—Publishers Weekly
 

Ratings and reviews

The Missing Ones by Edwin Hill Hester Thursby Mystery #2 Some words that I wrote down: * obsession * drugs * sex * endangerment * murder * tangled * kidnapping * crime * thought provoking * disturbing * intense Hester Thursby had a tough time in the previous book and has become obsessed with an almost irrational fear that Kate, a child she has cared for a year, will disappear or come to harm. She is really in a stew of her own making and doesn’t know how to get out of the hamster wheel she finds herself in. Her partner and friends are concerned but she is huffy and difficult to put it mildly. When Kate’s’ mother, Daphne, sends a cry for help to Hester it is a central point in the book. Still unable to leave Kate she leaves in the night and heads to Finisterre Island, Maine. She does not find Daphne but does begin to find clues that may eventually lead to locating her. As Hester looks she meets a number of people in the small island community, hears the stories of two boys that suddenly appeared a day or so after they strangely went missing, sees the dynamics of various relationships, searches for Daphne, stumbles across a dead body, encounters scary people and begins to come to terms with the obsessive fear that has hounded her for so long. When Morgan, her partner, arrives they discuss loudly, come to an agreement on how to split up to find Daphne and head off to search some more. When I started this book I thought it was slow and couldn’t understand why we met who we did and what parts the people on the island would play in Hester’s life. As I got further into the book I found myself tangled in the web the story was creating and kept reading till after 3am to find out what would happen. I usually do a “what I liked” and “what I did not like” when doing a review but this book doesn’t lend itself as easily to that format. Why? All of the characters in the book were flawed and at times difficult to like. The plot was gritty, dark and troubling. The ending left me unsettled but hopeful for Hester, Morgan and another child but worried about Daphne and the direction she seemed to be heading. Many of the characters did what most would consider evil things or at least things I would not do and it worried me. At the same time I know that the people that were worrisome are believable and in character and thus even more disturbing as a result. This is a book that will linger with me. I am not sure where the next book will head but the way Hester seems to tangle with some very bad situations I do know that it will be a thought provoking story that I will gladly read when it is published. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington books for the ARC – This is my honest review. 5 Stars

About the author

Edwin Hill is the author of the critically-acclaimed Hester Thursby mystery series, the first of which, Little Comfort, was an Agatha Award finalist, a selection of the Mysterious Press First Mystery Club and a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selection. Formerly the vice president and editorial director for Bedford/St. Martin's (Macmillan), he now teaches at Emerson College and has written for the LA Review of Books, The Life Sentence, Publisher's Weekly, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts with his partner Michael and their lab, Edith Ann. Visit him online at www.Edwin-Hill.com.