Missing

by Rose Rouse

It is every person's—particularly every parent's—worst nightmare. For a loved one to walk out through the front door and never to return is one of the most heartbreaking, terrifying, and harrowing experiences someone can go through. Not to know the fate of a person close to you is simply agonizing—did they choose to disappear, were they involved in an accident, or did something even worse befall them? Every day, staggering numbers of people go missing. Most return within 72 hours but there many are never seen again. Some are students who take off to distant countries without telling their parents and then disappear; some are husbands who have left to come to terms with their own problems; some are runaways, others missing parents. In this compelling book, journalist Rose Rouse is granted exclusive access to the mothers, brothers, sons, wives, sisters, and daughters of those who have vanished without trace. Rouse shares in the turmoil that they have endured in their quest to be reunited with those who have disappeared from their lives. These are amazing stories of people who have moved heaven and earth to find their loved ones.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2008

Reviews

[Ruth Turner · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Each chapter in this book is a different story of a missing person.

The basic facts of each story are interesting but the writing left a lot to be desired.

I've never come across so many people that were attractive, bright, intelligent, had wonderful personalities, were amazing husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. Even the rebellious teenager, accepted by her wonderful parents, fell pregnant and instantly became a wonderful mother.

Chapter 6 was about an Australian (I'm Australian) boy adopted by British parents, who were living in Australia at the time. His quest to find his birth parents was so unrealistic that it was almost unbelievable. By the end of that chapter I knew there was no way I was going to be able to wade through another two hundred and fifty pages.


Ugh! Nauseating!

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it. Each chapter is a mini story of differing 'missing' tales.
It goes without saying that each story is extremely sad and must be heartbreaking for the families involved.
However, one story after another gets very depressing really quickly and I just couldn't bring myself to read any more.
None of the chapters that I read gave any new perspective or information on the investigations that I couldn't have got via a google search.
Individually when these tragic incidents occur we, as a nation are engrossed in the newspaper articles and news updates. Keen to see the person found safe and well we pray we are never in the same position. I guess the author has just struck upon putting all these newspaper shifting articles together in one book hoping she'll have a best seller. Sadly it just does not work, not least because it's fairly poorly written and not at all engaging.
Also, because there are so many of essentially similar stories in one book, I'm really sorry to say that I got bored. I feel terrible saying that and I mean nothing rude towards the people involved, as each story is completely tragic and I wish them all a happy ending. I just feel this book does not do their individual stories any justice.

[Marísa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very diverse cases, and definitely not all of missing persons. The author fails to capture the 'raw' personally traumatizing deeper-than-a-tabloid-article essence of what the families have experienced.

A mere three months of interviews and it shows.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

not all the chapters where about missing people...