Books like Local Woman Missing

by Lisa Jewell

Secrets at home

Why this connection?

This is the closest family match. Fifteen-year-old Ellie Mack disappeared ten years ago, and her mother, Laurel, still has no answer. When Laurel starts seeing Floyd, his daughter's resemblance to Ellie brings the old questions back, much as Delilah's return does in Local Woman Missing.

What is different?

The public setup centers on Laurel's new relationship and her unresolved loss, rather than a missing child coming home. Choose it for a parent's view of the years afterward.

by Ashley Flowers and Alex Kiester

A puzzle to unravel

Why this connection?

Choose this if you liked an old case coming back to life in one community. Journalist Margot Davies returns to Wakarusa, Indiana, and looks for a link between a girl missing from a nearby town and her childhood neighbor's unsolved murder twenty years earlier.

What is different?

A reporter follows two cases, rather than a returned child restarting one family's story. The community resists her questions, and the premise leaves open whether the cases are connected.

by Paula Hawkins

A puzzle to unravel

Why this connection?

A broader pick. Rachel watches one couple from her commuter train and imagines their life together. After she sees something disturbing, she becomes involved in a police investigation. Try it if the gap between how a life looks from outside and what is really happening interested you.

What is different?

Its starting point is a commuter's glimpse of strangers, not a missing child or a case from years ago. Choose it for an outsider's view rather than a family's.