Leigh Fletcher: happily married stepmom to two gorgeous boys goes missing on Monday. Her husband, Mark, says he knows nothing of her whereabouts. She went to work and just never came home. Their family is shattered.
Kai Janssen: married to wealthy Dutch businessman Daan and vanishes the same week. Kai left their luxurious penthouse and glamorous world without a backward glance. She seemingly evaporated into thin air. Daan is distraught.
Detective Clements knows that people disappear all the time—far too frequently. Most run away from things, some run toward and others are taken but find their way back. A sad few never return. These two women are from very different worlds. Their disappearances are unlikely to be connected. And yet, at a gut level, the detective believes they might be.
How could these women walk away from their families, husbands and homes willingly? Clements is determined to unearth the truth, no matter how shocking and devastating it may be.
Release Date: Feb 2, 2022
Publisher: Harlequin
Imprint: MIRA
Price: $9.99
Leigh Fletcher is a happy wife and stepmom to two boys. She leaves for work one morning, but disappears. Kai Janssen is also happily married and disappears while on a trip to check in on her mother who is ill. Each couple seems to be keeping secrets that could be related to the disappearance of the women. DC Clements is convinced these two seemingly unrelated cases are connected and won’t give up on the investigation no matter what direction it takes.
The premise of this book is very intriguing and I really enjoyed the first part of the book which goes back and forth in time and between Leigh and Kai’s points of view. Leigh and her husband Mark, as well as Kai and her husband Daan, are flawed and are keeping secrets. This provides a great set-up for a suspenseful story. This is a hard book to review without giving away crucial plot developments. There is one huge twist fairly early on in the book that is a game changer! There is a lesser twist involving Leigh’s best friend that ends up being important to the overall plot. Although the author includes a few red herrings as to what happened to Leigh and Kai, I was able to figure it out relatively easily. Also, know that this is not a cozy mystery. There are a couple of violent scenes that are hard to read, and there are also some graphic sex scenes.
I enjoyed the character of DC Clements and wish there would have been more of a focus on the investigation, especially toward the end of the book. I was interested in how things would turn out, but some parts of the book became tedious. There are pages and pages of internal dialogue and soul-searching that at first give some insights into important characters. However, they soon become repetitive and slow the pace of the book. Although I appreciate the major plot twist in the story, that doesn’t make up for the somewhat predictable and abrupt ending that leaves many things unresolved and ambiguous. I love the premise of Woman Last Seen and would read other books by this author, but was disappointed in this one.
~ Christine
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