Megan Miranda’s debut adult novel, All The Missing Girls is a thrilling page-turner of a mystery that will keep you guessing until the last word.
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he story is told by Nicolette “Nic” Farrell, who has spent ten years trying to move away from and move on from her small North Carolina hometown of Cooley Ride. Understandable, considering that when she was eighteen her best friend vanished and left the whole town swept up in an investigation of rumors and lies. A letter from her father, suffering from dementia, brings her back. She tells herself it will only be a temporary detour from the life she’s carefully built in Philadelphia – a private school guidance counselor, living in a big city, engaged to a wealthy young lawyer, fiercely independent. But then another girl goes missing, and this investigation cannot continue without dragging up the past one. Where is Anneleise Carter? What happened to Corinne Prescott? These are the questions the story moves to unearth, but it does so with a shocking twist: the story is told backwards.
Yes, backwards. We begin forwards, up until Day 1 of Nic’s return. Then we flash to Day 15 and work our way back to Day 1. [For clarity, Day 15 starts with that morning, and ends with that night. The next chapter stars with Day 14’s morning and ends with that night, so it’s not completely in reverse to the point it’s incomprehensible.] It works surprisingly well. Miranda crafts a tale so full of lies and twists and astonishing truths that in retrospect, the only way the reveal makes sense is in reverse. And wow, what a reveal.
This book is the cool girl you knew in high school, who you’re finally reuniting with after you moved apart. You think you know what she is and what she’s hiding, but there’s so much more beneath the surface. With every page, you find yourself realizing that she’s much darker than you had anticipated, and you’re asking her “what did you get yourself into?” and “how are you going to get out of this?” She may be unreliable and have some questionable opinions about how one ought to live their life, but you find yourself respecting her nonetheless. She makes you feel like you have to earn her truths.
All The Missing Girls tests you the way Corinne tested the people around her. It forces you to keep up with the plot in reverse, to remember all the little details it lays out before you. It asks you to string together the theories on your own. I usually pride myself on being able to guess what’s coming, but despite what I thought I knew, the ending still left me completely blindsided.
The story is compelling the whole way through, but after Day 5, I found myself unable to put it down and stayed up late finishing the entire thing. For fans of thrillers and mysteries, it’s definitely worth the read.
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