(Or: How to read two books in one day and still get the laundry done. Sort of.)
Let’s just start with this: Gone Missing is an excellent book. Like, “ignore the dishes and let the cat eat dinner late” kind of excellent. Linda Castillo’s back at it again with her crime-solving, ex-Amish, emotionally-complex, totally-badass protagonist Kate Burkholder, and I was immediately hooked. The prologue alone? An Amish girl on the verge of taking her own life. Yeah. Not exactly light fare, but I was all in.
If you’ve read any of the other books in Castillo’s series, you’ll recognize the familiar setup: Painter’s Mill, Ohio; crime hits the Amish community; Kate, now Chief of Police and former bonnet-wearer, dives in headfirst to find out what happened while trying to keep her emotional baggage zipped up (spoiler: it’s never fully zipped). This time, Amish teens are disappearing, and not in the usual "went off to sow wild oats during Rumspringa and forgot to come back" kind of way. It’s darker. And twistier. And oh boy, did it deliver.
Kate Burkholder is my kind of leading lady. Strong? Check. Smart? Check. Makes mistakes but doesn’t let them define her? Check. Cries in her car sometimes but still gets the job done? Double check. She reminds me a little of me—minus the badge and the ability to track suspects through the woods, of course.
Then we have John Tomasetti, her love interest and occasional investigative partner from the BCI. His backstory is trauma with a capital T—his wife and kids were murdered, which understandably gives him zero patience for anyone hurting children. But he’s not your stereotypical damaged loner. He supports Kate, doesn’t try to "fix" her, and most importantly, walks beside her. Not in front. Not behind. Beside. Which, as any woman who’s tried to hike with a man knows, is a rare and beautiful thing.
Plot-wise? This book is a page-turner. No, really. I read the whole thing in one sitting… right after finishing another book. (I’m not bragging, I’m just saying: this is how good it is.) Castillo gives you just enough of what the characters are thinking to keep you guessing, but not so much that you figure out the big twist by chapter three. And thank the writing gods, the timeline moves forward in a straight line. None of that confusing back-and-forth mess that makes you feel like you’re in a time-traveling fever dream.
The story explores big themes—loss, resilience, and the pursuit of truth, no matter how uncomfortable it gets. And the ending? Let’s just say I gasped out loud, scared the cat, and immediately googled whether a certain character shows up in future books. (Noah Mast, I’m looking at you.)
So, if you like crime fiction with depth, heart, and a protagonist who can wrangle suspects and inner demons in equal measure, Gone Missing is absolutely worth your time. And if you’re anything like me, don’t make plans the day you start it—you won’t be putting it down.
