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Spoilers Beyond This Point

“Lonely, alone, in solitude. Whatever you call it, Julia is an island. Somebody who has now done unspeakable, awful things that no one knows about.”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

The first third of the book really focuses on Julia, who is definitely the central character. Julia is leading the investigation for Olivia Johnson, a young woman who disappeared in an alley. On her way to Olivia’s house on the first night, Julia is held at knifepoint by an assailant and given evidence to plant in Olivia’s room. Julia is a straight and narrow police officer who would not stand for corruption…except that she has broken the law and her assailant is very clear that he knows that.

A year earlier, Julia’s daughter Genevieve had been mugged in a parking garage. Genevieve instinctually used her keys to jab the mugger, and somehow nicked the man’s jugular. He collapsed, Julia came to find Genevieve, and immediately decided to cover it up. Then Julia is assigned the case, and closes it as quickly as she can as a random drug-related stabbing. Unfortunately, the mugger, Zac, survived and tried to confront Julia at the police station before dying of sepsis. And Zac clearly shared his knowledge that Julia covered the whole incident up with someone before his death.

“If she doesn’t do it, she is certain that man will tell the world about Genevieve, and about her.”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

As Julia starts working on Olivia’s case, it brings up memories of Sadie’s case from the previous year. Julia was so distracted by Zac that she wasn’t able to lead a thorough investigation with Sadie. And while Julia feels extremely guilty about it, Sadie’s father Lewis is closer to enraged. He’s spent the last year ruminating on every misstep and delayed call Julia made, and is determined not to let that happen again. 

While Lewis is stewing as he watches TV reports about Julia’s investigation, Emma is meeting Julia for the first time. Her son, Matthew, was never charged for anything related to his girlfriend’s disappearance. But a small neighborhood won’t let that stop gossip, and soon everyone that knew Matthew was convinced he’d had something to do with her disappearance. And now Julia has learned that her planted evidence implicates Matthew in Olivia’s disappearance as well. Julia has to go interview Matthew and Emma, and ends up bringing them to the police station for more interviews.

“That jaw is the sign of a man so sad and mired in grief that he no longer cares, at all, about what happens to him.”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

All three of these parents are tied up in lies and illusions. Julia is jeopardizing her career and her morals to protect Genevieve from any amount of jail time. Emma is keeping secrets from Julia about Matthew, even though she’s beginning to doubt his innocence. And Lewis is off the deep end completely, feeding his own obsession with Sadie’s case. And yet…they’re all fiercely loyal, ready to sacrifice everything for their kids. As their relationships with the other parents grow, they each recognize those traits in each other. This helps keep the story from feeling like a huge depressive episode. Instead, each chapter focuses on the tangled web of mystery and each parent’s emotional growth.

“The very specific feeling of unlocking the truth floods Julia’s system. She and Jonathan used to talk about this feeling all the time. ‘Like electricity going from your heart,’ he once said, and she’d nodded emphatically.”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

Then the twists start coming. First, it’s revealed that Lewis is the assailant who forced Julia to plant evidence. Second, we learn that Emma’s son Matthew used to go by Andrew…and was Sadie’s boyfriend when she disappeared. Lewis has been obsessed with him for the last year, determined to make Julia and Matthew pay. Then it’s revealed that Matthew was texting with Olivia the night she disappeared. And I know it seems like those are huge twists, but no. The first big twist is that Olivia Johnson doesn’t exist. 

“You’ve been missing a year, Sadie, and here he is, experiencing regret about something he’d done in his past. Talking about it to the woman I have invented: Olivia Johnson.”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

Sweetest dad in the delusional world, Lewis, has spent the last year creating a fake person to lure Matthew back. He created social media accounts for an Olivia Johnson, friended Matthew, and they began chatting off and on. To up the stakes, Lewis has to create a physical Olivia Johnson, set up Matthew so he’s an immediate suspect, and then make Olivia disappear. To do this, he starts at his job, the passport office. He creates a fake passport, finds a house share that will accept Olivia without meeting her in person, and then goes to the house in the middle of the night to move in some clothes and furniture. He lays a trail of information for the police through texts with the roommates, emails with the landlord, and chats with Matthew. The biggest mystery was CCTV footage of Olivia, which Lewis confesses to Julia was done by a hacker he hired. So there’s no Olivia, no current missing girl, but Emma still thinks her son is doing something suspicious.

“In response, I simply sink to my knees, holding you, your wonderful, real, yielding body, and I thank every single lucky star in the sky that you are here, that you’re mine. That you’re you.”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

Emma continues snooping around her son’s stuff, and shares all the information she finds with Julia. Julia has started piecing everything together, and starts building a hunch that Sadie is still alive. She’s trying to follow  multiple leads at once, so she sends Lewis to a diner that Matthew visits on a regular basis. And when Lewis walks into the restaurant, he’s face to face with his daughter. And that’s only the second twist! Matthew has been helping keep Sadie hidden for the past year because she got caught up in a ring of identity theft. She worked at the passport office with her dad, and had ended up creating fake passports for a gang for several months. The only way out was to escape.

“‘Who? Sadie, we’ve got to tell someone. We’ve got to tell the police.’ ‘But he is the police. He’s called Jonathan.’”

Just Another Missing Person, Gillian McAllister

 Then boom, the final big twist. The leader of the identity theft ring was Julia’s coworker, Jonathan. He’d been Julia’s confidante and partner for Sadie and Olivia’s cases, and Julia had even confessed her cover-up to him. And the whole time, he’d been leading a dangerous second life. Julia is close to putting all the pieces together when Jonathan abducts her and takes her to the outskirts of town to kill her. With the help of her informant, she’s able to kill Jonathan before he kills her. Sadie is reunited with her parents and moves back home. Matthew is cleared of all suspicion, and he and Sadie continue their relationship. Julia turns herself in for what happened with Zac so that she and Genevieve can live in peace. However, her case is dismissed, and she is allowed to stay on the police force.

A lot of thrillers stay firmly in the “popcorn” category for me because everything feels ridiculous. All the characters are running around with no real purpose, just making choices that seem insane. The most important part of this book is the parents’ motivations. There’s a depth to each narrator that most thrillers don’t have, and it made the book feel more raw and true-to-life, with consequences that held my attention. This book is a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, trippy timeline thriller, in line with McAllister’s other titles. If you enjoy her thrillers, or have ever had one recommended to you, READ THIS when it comes out. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.