I read Gillian McAllister’s “Wrong Place, Wrong Time” last winter, and I loved it. I especially loved the structure and how it unraveled in reverse. For someone like me who relentlessly picks apart every little thing to try and figure out what is going on, that structure was perfect because I never really knew what to expect. “Just Another Missing Person” is good – but I didn’t love it as much as I loved Wrong Place, Wrong Time. It was a good read, but I felt the pacing of the book was a little slow in the beginning, though the second half picks up and delivers an exhilarating ride filled with unexpected twists – and at times, I felt like maybe there were too many twists.

The story follows the disappearance of 22-year-old Olivia, who was last seen on CCTV entering a dead-end alley and never coming back out. Detective Julia Day, the lead investigator, is perplexed by this but starts the case off like she does every other missing person case she’s worked on. She’s determined to get this one right. The last case she worked on was full of oversights – mostly because she was preoccupied with covering up something her daughter did. Something she thought for sure no one else knew about.

But just as she begins her investigation into Olivia’s disappearance, a stranger gives her a bag of evidence she is to plant and the name of someone she is to convict. And if she doesn’t – they’re going to tell her secret – one that could have devastating consequences for both her and her teenage daughter.

From the opening pages, the sense of unease and mystery is palpable. As with her last book, the author skillfully builds tension and keeps readers guessing – even though I felt the first 50% of the book dragged a bit. Once we hit that 50% mark, though, a huge twist comes in. It definitely left me scratching my head, and then a realization hits, and you realize that you’ve been looking in the wrong direction – but now what? I will admit when I hit this mark, I finally thought, “Okay! Here we go”. The last half of the book speeds by. There’s a ton of action and several more twists. By the end, I felt a little dizzy with all of the twists and turns, and it left me feeling a little tricked, if you will. Last week, I reviewed “Dark Corners” by Megan Goldin. What I liked about that book was I was never expecting the twists. They happened naturally and were a pleasant surprise. There also weren’t that many of them. With this one, I felt like the twists were almost too deliberate and a bit gimmicky. I was a little underwhelmed by some of them.

Something I really liked about this book was the exploration of complex ethical dilemmas. The issue of family loyalty and the lengths individuals will go to protect their loved ones is a central theme in the story. McAllister adeptly navigates the line between right and wrong. We know what Julia did was wrong – and the choices she makes to cover this up are also wrong – but we still want her to be okay. This forces us, as readers, to question our own moral compass.

Part of this is because Julia (and the other characters) in the book are well-developed and realistic. It makes it easy to empathize with their struggles and dilemmas. Writing strong, realistic characters is one of McAllister’s strengths. You’ll love a character for a while, and then all of a sudden, they’ll do something bad, and it’ll crush your soul. Likewise, you might start off feeling ambivalent towards a character in the beginning – or not like them at all, and then end up loving them and then hating them all over again.

As I said, this book started off way too slow for me, and while the initial build-up is necessary to establish the groundwork for the plot, it may deter some readers who prefer a faster-paced narrative. Nonetheless, the slow burn ultimately pays off, and readers who push through will be rewarded with a thrilling and overly twisty but satisfying conclusion. Fans of twisty thrillers will enjoy this one. While I didn’t totally love it, I did enjoy this book.