The Missing: A Thriller [Paperback]

A razor-sharp thriller from the Edgar Award–nominated author who blurs the lines between dreams and nightmares (Abilene Reporter-News, TX).

Darby McCormack was in high school when she first encountered the killer: someone murdered a woman in the woods where Darby and her two best friends were partying. His race to silence the witnesses was sure-footed and violent—but somehow Darby survived.

Twenty-five years later, Darby is a crime-scene investigator for the Boston Police Department, and a chilling case—a woman’s late-night abduction—has her uncovering strange leads to missing women, past and present. As forensic clues lead her closer to a psychopath called the Traveler, Darby must finally resolve the nightmare of her past and come face-to-face with a killer who is determined to keep the missing—and the horrors they endured at his hands—from ever coming to light.Chris Mooney is the critically acclaimed author ofDeviant Ways,World Without End, andRemembering Sarah, which was nominated for the Barry Award and the Edgar Award for Best Novel. He lives in Boston with his wife and son.The Missing

Chapter 1

Darby McCormick grabbed Melanie by the arm and pulled her into the woods with no trails. Nobody came out this way. The real attraction was behind them, across Route 86, the biking and hiking trails along Salmon Brook Pond.

“Why are you taking me out here?” Melanie asked.

“I told you,” Darby said. “It’s a surprise.”

“Don’t worry,” Stacey Stephens said. “We’ll have you back at the convent in no time.”

Twenty minutes later, Darby dropped her backpack on the spot where she and Stacey often came to hang out and smoke—a sloping wall of dirt littered with empty beer cans and cigarette buttlӚ