Missing Book Review

I was glad that I reserved a bunch of books at the library to come off at different times because I was so busy with the move that I didn't have time to make it to the library to pick out books but I was able to grab them off the reserve shelf when they came in.  Missing: The Secrets of Crittenden County, Book One by Shelley Shepard Gray was the next one that appeared on my reserve shelf.

When the shocking death of a young man, Perry Borntrager, rocks a quiet Amish community, the dead man’s former girlfriend and his “Englisher” best friend find themselves murder suspects. The boy had been missing for months but the community thought that he left because he had changed and made some bad decisions until a young girl found his body in a well.  A police detective arrives to help the local sheriff and is greeted by mistrust because he is an outsider.  All of the people involved are keeping the truth hidden because they don't want to speak badly of the dead man but they are confusing the investigation by hiding information.  This is an interesting book of mystery and friendship but you have to pick up the book to find out what happens.

Although I loved the writing and can't wait to pick up the next book from the library, this book left a little to be desired.  I need a book to stand on it's own and I don't think that this one does.  It is a great story about looking into the death of a young Amish man who was murdered but the story doesn't get resolved or have any real plot twists.  The characters weren't really developed in this book although there were a few things revealed.  The whole basis of the resolution in this book is that Lydia and Walker are keeping secrets which they end up telling the detective by the end of the book.  I don't think that is enough intrigue to call this book a mystery or think that anything was solved.  The book just ended and nothing was solved.  Although I love books in sequence, this book should have had a little bit more resolution if we were to believe that these secrets were that important to breaking the case.  I don't know if you have checked out this book or others by this author but I think that some of her fiction work is better written and she was reaching too far to make this a mystery.  Still being a glutton for punishment, I got the next two books in the series to see what happens.  I might have a better view after reading the other books in the series.