It’s a common theme for thrillers. A woman is missing. When I started writing my latest novel, Don’t Look for Me, I did not intend to go down this path. In fact, the story began with a real-life moment I had on a back road far from home. It was one of those moments where stress and emotion take over and your brain shoots off a crazy, fight-or-flight-induced thought that is quickly swept away by rational decision making. It was a thought about walking away, along this strange but oddly beautiful road, that seemed to lead to nowhere, but somewhere other than where I was. Most of us have had these fleeting, impulsive thought—like chucking a cell phone out the window, or quitting a job—that provide relief from emotional stress. But when the stress is extreme enough, these thoughts can overtake us, and we act. In fact, most missing person cases are the result of the person having walked away voluntarily. Some return on their own. Some choose to stay gone. And then there are those—the outliers—whose disappearance involves criminal activity. Below is a list of thrillers that play with these themes in different ways.
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
Missing Woman: The Wife
It is impossible to write a piece about thrillers with missing women without giving a well-deserved nod to the novel that essentially re-created the psychological thriller genre. In this ground-breaking work, seemingly happy wife, Amy Dunne, disappears with all signs pointing to her husband, Nick. Traces of blood. A potential murder weapon. Bad behavior. And a diary. While familiar themes such as not really knowing the people closest to us and hidden secrets behind closed doors are handled with depth and darkness, it is the book’s structure that created the buzz. Written with a shocking half-way twist and leaning in hard to the unreliable narrator, Gone Girl set writers free to use every trick and trope imaginable to delight and surprise readers.
Confessions on the 7:45, Lisa Unger
Missing Woman: The Nanny
If, in quarantine, you’ve been longing to connect more with neighbors, shopkeepers, even complete strangers, this novel will make you think twice! Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job when she strikes up a conversation with a beautiful young woman in the next seat over who calls herself Martha. The woman opens up to her about an affair she’s having with her boss, and Selena unleashes her own fears that her husband is sleeping with their nanny. Because that’s what we do – right? Make new connections. Trust people who confide in us. But days later, when the nanny disappears and all eyes turn to Selena and her husband, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha, really? Told through multiple perspectives and intricately plotted, this thriller is deeply satisfying and entertaining.
Behind the Red Door, Megan Collins
Missing Woman: Former Kidnap Victim
Fern Douglas had an unconventional childhood. Though that’s putting it mildly. Her father, a renowned and highly competitive psychological researcher, has been conducting fear experiments on her since she was a little girl. Now, all grown up, married, and fighting the repercussions of her childhood trauma, Fern is asked to return home to New Hampshire to help her parents move. When she sees the news about a missing person, Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old woman from Maine, she is positive she knows her. Fern’s husband is convinced it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago. But when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, Fern starts to believe it’s a memory. Collins’ astute observations about the connections between past and present, combined with the alternating narrations from Astrid’s recent memoir, keep the pages turning in this unique and fascinating psychological thriller.
The Watcher, Jennifer Pashley
Missing Woman: Reclusive Off-The-Grid Mother
This literary thriller about a small town in upstate New York provides another look at how women go missing and why. Pearl Jenkins, a virtual hermit living in a shack in the woods, disappears one day, leaving behind a pool of blood and a small child no one knew existed. It’s up to newcomer and emotionally complex detective Kateri Fisher to solve the crime, even as she runs into obstacles from the local community. No one cared about Pearl Jenkins when she was here. Why should they care now that she’s gone? This dark, atmospheric story is beautifully written and delivers a solid emotional punch.
All the Missing Girls, Megan Miranda
Missing Women: Two Young Women, Ten Years Apart
So much about this bestselling book is different and wonderful. First, it’s told in reverse for the fifteen days after (the now adult) Nicolette returns to her rural hometown to help care for her ailing father. While she’s back in the place where her best friend, Corrine, disappeared ten years before, another woman goes missing. And not just any woman—the anchor for the alibi that left Corrine’s disappearance unsolved. Featuring a small town, a tight group of friends, a family with everything to lose, and twists and turns galore, All the Missing Girls cemented Miranda’s place at the top of the genre.
Then She Was Gone, Lisa Jewell
Missing Woman: A Teenage Girl
Ellie Mack disappeared ten years ago. At the time, she was just fifteen with her whole life in front of her. Nothing suggested trouble. She had a loving family, friends, and was about to embark on a summer holiday after the end of the school year. Fast forward. Her mother, Laurel, is now divorced and still struggling to put her life back together, even as clues creep in about Ellie’s disappearance. Then Laurel meets a man and love suddenly returns to her life. But is it too sudden? When Laurel meets her new love’s grown daughters, the youngest bears an uncanny resemblance to Ellie—and Laurel can feel it in her bones. This awesome set-up and Jewell’s meticulous follow-through has kept Then She Was Gone on the bestseller lists year after year.
And Now She’s Gone, Rachel Howzell Hall
Missing Woman: The Mysterious Girlfriend of a Renowned Surgeon
I love this tagline: Isabel Lincoln is gone. But is she missing? What is so fascinating about the missing woman set-up in this novel, is how deep it delves into the reasons why most women who disappear leave of their own volition. With sharp, witty dialogue, and a story that takes us backward into investigator Grayson Sykes’ past, and then forward into the complex web of lies and misdirection as the search for Isabel heats up, And Now She’s Gone is unique in its storytelling and narrative voice. And there are plenty of psychological issues to sink your teeth into about why women decide they need to run, hide, and reinvent themselves.
Perfectly Famous, Emily Liebert
Missing Woman: A Famous Author
Technically, mother and famous author, Ward DeFleur, hasn’t disappeared in any way that has involved the authorities. She has simply chosen to vanish after the devastating murder of her teenage daughter, Stevie. Enter Bree Bennett—a recently-divorced, former-journalist-cum-housewife—desperate to fill her days with something other than Pilates classes and grocery shopping. When she decides to try her hand at writing a piece devoted to finding her favorite author, she runs into resistance from Ward’s people, and danger from Stevie’s possible killer. Suspects emerge from every corner and the ending has a delicious surprise!
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