Boy, 9, Missing

While I read this book to completion, there were several story related and writing style items that bothered me along the way.Without getting into the plot or any spoilers, this story involves, in my opinion, a rather unlikable man (Francis) who completely ignores his own 14-15 year old daughter, Amy, who has come to live with him, while he attempts to personally solve the disappearance of a boy and the death of his brother several years earlier. Francis continually ignores, abandons, and lies to Amy while somehow getting everyone in town to answer his questions as though he were a detective. Francis describes himself as a smallish, claustrophobic asthmatic who somehow has the ability to shed each of these traits when they prove to be inconvenient for the story line. Astonishing. When I wasn't feeling uncomfortable with his fathering skills or mesmerized by his ability to overcome every physical obstacle imaginable, I found myself wondering about odd story lines. Why was the school principal even mentioned and, having brought her up, why was their no conclusion to her story? Why was there not more detail about the father toward the end of the book when so much if the story seemingly surrounded him?Also, while I understand dialogue is extremely hard to write, it is my opinion the editor should have asked the author to go back and tighten up almost every passage of dialogue. I don't recall a book with such a stark writing contrast between dialogue and other portions of the book. I found myself rooting for more portions of the manuscript written by Kira Jones so the writing would flow better.This was a decent enough book but frustrated me with Francis's terrible parenting skills and the author's bad habit of not providing closure to specific elements of the story. I doubt I would recommend this to others.

I had read other reviews and was skeptical. I read the sample, though, and wanted to know more. It was on sale for $2 so I took the chance. I was not sad. The son of a cop, and a journalist to boot, the main character is fallible and flawed. He is also convincingly driven for various understandable reasons. I honestly enjoyed how much this book made you think about how these things must go down in the honest day to day. I feel many of the other reviews don't do real justice to the struggle the character is going through.There is a lot going on here, yes, and it certainly kept me guessing here and there. I honestly enjoyed the story with its many twists and turns. Journalist follow the leads to try to dig up the story and Francis tackled this as both a journalist and as a human being in the best way he knew how, even at his own peril. It kept me invested and I am glad I took the chance.

A page-turner; this novel of suspense is thrilling as well as very funny. The protagonist, who narrates, is a "hot mess" as Ms. Joseph says in a Q&A in back of the book: running up and down stairs because he is claustrophobic in elevators, running from one location to another on foot or by car, running from all relationships at the same time he tries to hug them to himself. The other characters are well developed even though it is our hot mess who describes them and their actions to us. I am very glad to have read this book. I chose it based on the review in the Feb. 5 '17 issue of the Washington Post.

This book kept me interested all the way through...very well done. You only know that everyone is lying about something as you follow the clues one by one ...no hints.

Minus grammatical errors and the corny writing style, the storyline was enough to keep me engaged the entire time. The suspense, twists and turns had me finish this book within hours.

I liked th I s book very m u check because it kept me guessing who really killed Lucas. It had many twists a nd turns and even until the end, I did not see what was coming. It really was a p a get Turner.

Book was like new! It arrived earlier than anticipated. I've bought used books from others and this is the best! Absolutely worth it! Other places are pricey and you get tattered books. I'm thrilled that I found this bookseller😁

The author's use of adjectives to describe emotional states was so limited. She often using the word sh..tI found it more than unpleasant. Some of the episodes were not believable. Author has need of more writing experiences.