A masterful novel set in 1920s Louisiana, The Missing is the story of Sam Simoneaux, a floorwalker at a New Orleans department store. When a little girl is kidnapped on Sam’s watch he is haunted by guilt, grief, and ghosts from his own troubled past. Determined to find her, Sam sets out on a journey through a world of music and violence, where riverboats teem with drinking and dancing, and where … and where dark swamplands conceal those who choose to live by their own laws. With the fate of the stolen child looming, The Missing vividly depicts an America lurching away from war, where civilization is only beginning to penetrate the hinterlands, and a man must choose between compassion and vengeance.
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The Missing is centred in 1920s Louisiana. It’s the story of Sam Simoneaux who feels honour-bound to help find a kidnapped child that he was partly culpable in losing. The trail requires him to work his passage on a pleasure steamer up the Mississippi and enter a world of jazz, moonshine and lawlessness
I bought The Missing after being gifted and …
Good story, and very well written. Lots of action, too. I think it was the best book I’ve read this year.