4 Thrillers that Capture the Horror of Missing or Abandoned Siblings

My husband and I and our two sons hiked for many years in Rocky Mountain National Park, beginning when the boys were very young. I loved watching them amble along the trail in front of me, hiking boots clunking on the rocks, bills of their baseball caps pointing backward, talking constantly, shrieking with laughter, their close bond on full display.

So, when I wrote Then He Was Gone, a thriller about the disappearance of six-year-old Henry at the end of a family hike in the mountains, told by multiple narrators, it was inevitable that one of those narrators—beginning with Chapter 1—would be Henry’s older brother Nick.

Nick experiences the range of human emotions upon the loss of a loved one. He blames himself for not staying with Henry. He grows angry at his parents and even with Henry himself. He becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories about children disappearing in national parks, conducting internet research that he is sure will help find Henry. He grieves deeply and fears the unknown cruelties of life that turn the world upside down in an instant. And he’s furious when he’s treated like a kid in critical moments.

A child gone missing is a popular theme in thrillers, often described as a parent’s worst nightmare. Here are four that also examine the effects on the sibling left behind.

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John Hart, The Last Child

Set in a small town in North Carolina, the story is told one year after the abduction of thirteen-year-old Johnny Merrimon’s twin sister Alyssa. Johnny’s father disappeared shortly after the abduction.

His mother, drug-addled and depressed, suffers a brutal, abusive relationship with a prominent local businessman to keep a roof over their heads: “Johnny learned early….He learned early that there was no safe place, not the backyard or the playground, not the front porch or the quiet road that grazed the edge of town. No safe place, and no one to protect you. Childhood was an illusion.”

Hurting, wise beyond his years, Johnny becomes the adult in the family—driving the beat-up family car, buying groceries, feeding his mother, stealing guns, compiling a list of suspects and watching them, making it his mission to find who took his sister and hopefully bring his family back together. His desperate determination is heartbreaking. The Last Child was the winner of the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Tim Johnston, Descent

The Courtland family is on vacation in Colorado when eighteen-year-old Caitlin, starting college in a few weeks on a track scholarship, is abducted. Her younger brother Sean is left lying by the side of the road, his leg shattered by the stranger in yellow-tinted glasses who took her.

Months go by, then years, and Sean undergoes transformation from a shy, overweight teenage boy his sister called Dudley, to a muscular, cigarette-smoking young man. He wanders aimlessly around the country in a truck he stole from his father, taking odd jobs to earn gas money to keep going. Ready to fight anyone abusing or disrespecting young women, he is haunted by shame that he didn’t do more to stop Caitlin from climbing into the kidnapper’s vehicle to go get help for her brother.

Beat up, released after a night in jail, Sean asks his father, “Do you think we’ll ever feel normal again?” When his father asks what’s normal, Sean replies, “I don’t know….Not this.” The novel is a powerful story of guilt, loneliness, and a family falling apart.

Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black

Ellie Black, emaciated, filthy, and wearIing a blood-soaked sweatshirt, is found in a Washington state park two years after she was kidnapped from an abandoned parking lot. Police detective Chelsey Calhoun, who has been working Ellie’s case, is determined to find out who took her and how she escaped, but Ellie won’t cooperate.

It’s personal for Chelsey. Her own sister Lydia went missing fifteen years before, presumed dead in a murder-suicide, her body washed out to sea and never found. Chelsey, age fourteen at the time, made the funeral arrangements, fielded the calls, accepted hugs from strangers, and watched her family break apart. Chelsey tells Ellie that’s what motivates her, what drives her sense of justice: “I guess you could call that my cop origin story.”

This is a tense, compelling story of secrets, resilience, and the violence women face.

Faith Gardner, The Second Life of Ava Rivers

Vera Rivers is set to leave for college in a few weeks when her twin sister, Ava, who disappeared one Halloween twelve years ago, suddenly comes back. In the years since Ava’s disappearance, Vera’s brother Elliott fades into a drug-fueled, troubled life. Her father retreats to the basement, her mother to community and charitable work.

Vera feels invisible, that she’s lost a part of herself. Her birthdays turn into memorial events for her missing twin. Friendless in high school, she looks forward to starting a new life in college far from home, where Ava’s disappearance doesn’t cast a pall on every relationship and every occasion.

But when Ava returns, Vera’s life is put on hold. She defers college; everything revolves around Ava. And Vera feels like she’s a ghost girl, like she’s lost her identity once again. Her father tells her that he doesn’t want her to feel pushed aside: “The way the words come out, it’s as if it’s being rehearsed. I don’t have the energy to break the news to him right now – I’ve already felt pushed aside for too long for it to matter now.”

The novel, narrated by Vera, delves deeply into her emotions, trauma, and family relationships.

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