Jenny Shepherd is twelve years old and missing…

Her teacher, Sarah Finch, knows better than most that the chances of finding her alive are diminishing with every day she is gone.

As a little girl her older brother had gone out to play one day and never returned. The strain of never knowing what has happened to Charlie had ripped Sarah’s family apart. Now in her early twenties, she is back living at home, trapped with a mother who drinks too much and keeps her brother’s bedroom as a shrine to his memory.

Then, horrifically, it is Sarah who finds Jenny’s body, beaten and abandoned in the woods near her home. As she’s drawn into the police investigation and the heart of a media storm, Sarah’s presence arouses suspicion too. But it not just the police who are watching her...

What the critics say...

This frantic thriller will keep you on your toes until the end
OK Magazine

The pace is energetic and exciting and the plot will have you white-knuckled and desperate to discover the finale
Easy Living

The Missing is an accomplished first novel by Jane Casey. Casey has created a flawed but like-able heroine and a tremendous sense of suspense that continues until the final page
Sunday Times

In her debut novel, Jane Casey expertly handles a complex and psychologically compelling plot
Daily Mail

A guaranteed nail-biter…a compelling and horrifying account of being implicated in events beyond your control
Glamour

accomplished writing and sensitive characterisation...
Laura WilsonGuardian

compulsive, menacing and moving - a very satisfying psychological thriller
Sophie Hannah

THE MISSING aims high, and doesn't miss. A complex plot, deftly handled; a good puzzle, dextrously unfolded; interesting characters, lots of tension, and a user-friendly style; this is a truly striking debut.
Reginald Hill

The Missing is a remarkably compelling and convincing depiction of what it must be like to be caught up - first as a witness, then as more than that - in a police murder inquiry
ROBERT GODDARD

an assured debut by an Irish writer, written with elegance and it delivers more twists than a corkscrew
Irish Independent

Make sure you don't miss...this taut, tense thriller
Marie Claire