Synopsis:
Merritt Coletto and her husband, Luca, have the life they dreamed of: a showplace home on the coast, a promising future, and a growing family. Their dream ends with a late-night knock bringing the past to their front door.
Weak, broken, and emaciated, Luca’s first wife, Lydia, has returned. Missing for ten years, presumed and declared dead, she is very much alive. And she tells quite a story of kidnapping, torturous confinement, near death, and, finally, escape.
Racked with guilt over the beautiful life they’ve built while Lydia had her life with Luca ripped away, Merritt is determined to help get Lydia back on her feet. It’s the least she and Luca they can do. And might prevent her from disrupting the life they have built.
But the more enmeshed Lydia becomes in Merritt’s family, the more questions Merritt has. What is it about Lydia that’s especially unnerving? Why hasn’t she gone to the police with her harrowing tale? What does she really want from them? The answers, when they come, are terrifying.
Lydia’s return knocks Merritt and Luca’s family dangerously off-balance. Because Lydia isn’t the only one with secrets.
Review:
Minka Kent says she has been dreaming up stories since before she could even print her name. She has always been curious about what happens when good people do bad things, and every story of hers has been inspired by “an intriguing what-if statement. A flash of a scene in my mind’s eye. An unanswered question. a mood. A fictional character who demands my attention . . . ”
Her eighth novel, Unmissing, is a prime example. It is another fast-paced psychological thriller in which Kent examines a what-if question that can have myriad potential answers: What if a man’s wife was legally declared dead after disappearing without a trace a decade ago, but suddenly reappears after he has remarried, and started a business and family with a second wife?
The story begins ten years ago as Lydia, twenty years old, is hiking near Bent Creek, Oregon. Just a few months earlier, they moved to Luca’s home town so he could eventually open a restaurant. Lydia is applying to nursing school and they plan to start a family. In her first-person narrative, Lydia gushes, “We’re building our dream life one beautiful brick at a time.” That dream dies when a man clamps his hand over her mouth and warns her, “Don’t scream.” She can’t get to her backpack containing her phone and GPS tracker. But she left a note for her husband, Luca, back at their house, telling him where she was going. It proves to be of no use.
I learned a long time ago that the only person who can save me is . . . me.
In the present day, Merritt also relates her own story in the first person, declaring at the outset that she is “a reasonable woman,” as she finds a “sunken-eyed, cadaverous figure” at her front door. She immediately recognizes Lydia, her husband’s first wife. Everyone believes that Lydia is dead, but Merritt finds herself looking into the face of a woman who is evidently unmissing. Lydia wants to speak to Luca, who is out of town attempting to sell their restaurant franchise to a national chain because it is hemorrhaging money and they are on the verge of losing everything they have worked for. They already have a young daughter and Merritt is about to give birth to a son. After Lydia — is she really Lydia, back from the dead? — leaves, Merritt makes clear at the outset that Luca is her best friend and soul mate, as well as the father of her children, and “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep them safe — or to keep us together.”
Lydia explains that she was abducted, tortured, sexually abused, and held captive until just a few months ago when she managed to escape. She has been working her way back to Bent Creek, sleeping on park benches, in post offices, working here and there along the way. Finally back home, she finds a “help wanted” sign in the window of The Blessed Alchemist store owned by Delphine DuBois, an intuitive who has lost her husband and daughter. Calling Lydia “Angel,” she agrees to let her stay in her deceased daughter’s room in exchange for working in the store and home. But Delphine makes clear that Lydia must pass a drug test, work to get her affairs in order without delay, and always be completely honest. Lydia explains only that she’s been “off the grid” and must get a new copy of her birth certificate in order to obtain a driver’s license and Social Security number so that Delphine can put her on the store’s payroll. What Lydia doesn’t reveal, of course, is that the actual documents belong to a woman who is, from a legal standpoint, dead. And she is back in town in order to be reunited with Luca. “I’m here for one thing and one thing only — to get my life back.” Is she set on breaking up Luca’s second marriage?
Kent advances the story via alternating chapters expressing the women’s experiences and perspectives. Merritt is sweet and conciliatory in her dealings with Lydia, expressing sympathy for her because she managed to survive a decade-long nightmare. She aggressively tries to help Lydia by, for example, taking her shopping for clothes. But those overtures are solely for the purpose of ensuring that Lydia does not disrupt the life she has built with Luca. Merritt confesses that she is actually terrified of Lydia and what Lydia’s reappearance might mean for her family. Her goal is to befriend Lydia in order to pacify her so she will simply move on, leaving Merritt to enjoy the perfect life with Luca that she has carefully cultivated.
Lydia is grateful to and genuinely fond of Delphine, determined not to do anything to hurt her. But she is understandably angry and resentful about what happened to her. “Who knows how I’d have turned out if it weren’t for that fateful afternoon in the woods. . . . I can’t stop focusing on the imbalance of justice.” She insists that she must meet with Luca face-to-face and eventually does. Kent’s portrayal of their reunion is a fascinating character study, His reaction to seeing her again, along with Lydia’s failure to go straight to the police when she escaped the captor she refers to as “The Monster,” are clues that Kent has again crafted an intricately-constructed story in which shocking revelations are imminent.
As Lydia gets to know Merritt, she finds herself caring for her and her children, harboring no ill will toward her for having married and started a family with Luca. Rather, she is determined to protect Merritt and the children when she eventually comes to believe that Merritt is a victim from whom Luca has been keeping terrible secrets. But Lydia is strong, resourceful, and resolved. She has had a full decade to imagine and plan what she would do once she regained her freedom. And no matter how much she wants to shield Merritt from getting hurt, she has no intention of going anywhere until she gets exactly what she came back to Bent Creek for.
Gradually, Kent reveals that the true agendas and motives of each character are quite disparate from the way in which readers originally perceive them. Kent provides the clues from the story’s inception. But like a magician employing misdirection, Kent initially draws readers’ attention away from those clues, distracting them until she is ready to surprise them by taking the story down a completely unexpected path. At that point, the pace of the tale continues accelerating to an explosive conclusion.
Readers will likely guess the biggest twist long before Kent discloses it, but that does not detract from the book’s entertainment value. Lydia is a sympathetic character, and Kent’s revelations of the truth further endear her to readers, along with the tender-hearted and lonely Delphine. Readers will find themselves reading feverishly to see if their hunch is accurate and learn whether Kent provides both ladies a happy ending. And delivers justice to “The Monster.” Which makes Unmissing a thoroughly enjoyable thriller.
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