(Image from Barnes & Noble)

No one stays in the tiny dead-end town of Reeve's End, Kentucky.  Winter Crane doesn't plan to be the exception.  The minute she finishes high school, the 17-year-old will run far away to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.  Her drunken father might miss his human punching bag, but Winter can't wait to be rid of him. 

In the meantime, Winter finds refuge in the lush forest surrounding her home.  Her temporary peace is interrupted when she finds Lennon Bishop, a teenage boy who's been badly beaten, in her woods.  He's evasive about what happened to him and before long, he's disappeared from Reeve's End.  When Lennon's older brother, Jude, comes to town looking for answers, he heads straight for Winter.  She has no idea why kids keep vanishing from town, but when she reluctantly joins Jude's quest for the truth, she's shocked to find that things in her hometown are not what they seem.  Not at all ...

Kelley Armstrong's thrillers never fail to engross me, be they geared toward adults or teens.  Missing is another YA offering from the prolific author.  Like her other novels, this one features a propulsive plot, tough but sympathetic characters, and strong, immersive prose.  I loved tough, capable Winter and definitely cared what was going to happen to her.  Because of all these elements, I couldn't stop reading Missing.  It's a riveting thriller that kept me zooming through pages until I got to the book's satisfying conclusion.  I've yet to meet an Armstrong thriller that didn't completely suck me in and this one is definitely no exception.    

(Readalikes:  Um, I can't think of anything.  You?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find