A thriller without urgency is just people making questionable decisions for 300 pages.
I really wanted to enjoy Missing Molly because the premise had all the ingredients for a tense, fast-paced thriller: a missing girl living under a new identity, a murdered family, the wrong man imprisoned for the crime, and the terrifying possibility that the real killer has resurfaced years later. Unfortunately, while the setup was compelling, the execution never fully pulled me in.
Rachel Holloway, who is revealed to be the missing Molly Forster, was difficult for me to connect with as a protagonist. Many of her choices felt unrealistic and frustrating rather than suspenseful. At one point, knowing the real killer may have returned, she still invites him into her home around her boyfriend and young child. Instead of increasing the tension, moments like this pulled me out of the story because her actions often did not feel emotionally believable.
I also struggled with the pacing. For a thriller, the story lacked the urgency and suspense I was expecting. I kept waiting for the tension to build, but I never felt that “just one more chapter” momentum that usually keeps me glued to a thriller late into the night. Ironically, I found myself more interested in what happened during the years Molly spent in hiding than in the present-day storyline itself.
The psychiatric hospital subplot also felt more like a convenient way to create conflict than a natural progression of the story. Combined with Rachel’s increasingly erratic behavior and an unsupportive relationship with her boyfriend, it became difficult to emotionally invest in the characters or their choices.
That said, I can still appreciate the potential behind the concept, and I think readers who enjoy slower-paced domestic suspense with unreliable or emotionally unstable narrators may connect with this more than I did. Unfortunately, I never felt fully engaged, surprised, or emotionally invested in the outcome.
Overall, this one landed at 2 stars for me. I finished it mostly out of determination rather than genuine suspense, which is never quite what I hope for in a thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.
