The Missing by Chris Mooney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have never been a huge fan of the serial killer sub-genre; I love Thomas Harris's 'Silence of the Lambs' and consider the predecessor, 'Red Dragon', a masterpiece. And the movies made from these novels are classics (I am including Michael Mann's 'Manhunter' here, not the Anthony Hopkins 'Red Dragon') as is Fincher's 'Seven'. However, aside from these, and very few others, and perhaps because of the success of 'Seven', it seems that every serial killer novel has to have a fiendish villain who meticulously lays out his victims in biblical tableaux, or in the styles of the great artists, or in tribute to classic 'Friends' episodes - actually that's not a bad idea, "The One with the Missing Limbs".

Chris Mooney is an author I had never come across and, though drawn by endorsements from Michael Connelly, George P. Pelecanos and, especially, John Connolly, I approached the first Darby McCormick novel with some trepidation. I am glad I did.

The book is well-written and Mooney has a talent for description and an ear for dialogue. The plot follows Darby, whose teenage encounter with a killer and survivor's guilt, has led her to a career as a CSI. The book speeds along with some genuinely tense and frightening sequences. Darby is an interesting protagonist and the bulk of the story is hers with visits into the head of the killer used sparingly and in short scenes to keep the suspense level just right. There a couple of twists which, in less capable hands, could have fallen into the clichés of the genre but which Mooney makes work. I enjoyed 'The Missing' a lot and look forward to the rest of the series, although I will still be wary that, should Darby McCormick stumble from one serial killer to another, Mooney may struggle to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

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