Local Girl Missing starts out with so much promise. Frankie's best friend, Sophie, died 20 years ago, and her body was never recovered. When Frankie receives a call from Sophie's brother saying that Sophie's remains have been found and begging her to return to her old hometown to help him identify her and track down her killer, she agrees and goes. That sounds pretty interesting, right? Unfortunately, the story pretty much devolves into a giant mess from then on.
A large part of the problem is that everyone acts silly in the story. The narrative alternates between present-day Frankie's and 20 years ago Sophie's point of view. Once Frankie gets to her hometown, she immediately starts receiving threatening notes and feels like she's being watched. She constantly tells herself she should leave, but then she just stays. This cycle repeats for days. Even though she is 40 years old, she thinks and acts like an immature baby, constantly angling for attention. In the story, supposedly everyone likes her, but I find that seriously hard to believe.
Sophie doesn't do any better, keeping secrets left and right, even when it's not necessary. The whole mystery wouldn't have happened if she hadn't kept everything from everyone close to her, guarding her secrets like they are great treasures.
About half way through the book, you can kind of see where it's going. From then on, the story crawls along, like a soap opera trying to draw out each moment without anything new happening. The mystery doesn't really progress. The suspense is the fake kind, where nothing is happening. We the readers find out more, not because some new clue is discovered or deduced, but because the narrators finally decide it's time to drop us little nuggets of info.
And when we finally reach the merciful end, the twist is just laughable.
Readaroo Rating: 1 star
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