Missing

Gr 10 Up—No one who leaves comes back to Reeve's End. Winter Crane wants to run off immediately after high school to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, and she plans to never look back. The declining town has nothing to offer anyone, especially Winter, who spends most of her time in a shack in the woods, living off the land to escape her abusive, alcoholic father and memories of better times with her older sister, Cady, who left town after a devastating encounter with a controlling boyfriend. Then she rescues a boy, Lennon, from an attack, and as she listens to his claims that he knows something about a recently missing girl, she starts to wonder what has happened to other teens who left town and were never heard from again, including Cady. Terror follows the pair as an attacker stalks them, but when Lennon's brother Jude shows up to help and Lennon disappears, Winter isn't sure whom to believe or trust. Winter has solid survival skills and a determination to uncover the truth, but the killer may be too clever to stop before he claims more lives, and the local police, who think it is all a big prank, refuse to help. "Suspenseful" doesn't begin to describe the tone of this compelling thriller, which will hold readers in its grasp from the first chapter. Fans of Laura Ruby's Bone Gap and April Henry's Girl, Stolen will be drawn to Winter's fierce personality as well as to the ghastly details in Armstrong's sinister tale of secrets, guilt, and power.