Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: YA/Mystery
Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
A retired
High School English teacher, Jon Ripslinger has several novels available for
your Kindle and has had more than sixty short stories published in various
magazines. After thirty-five years of teaching, six children, thirteen
grandchildren, and three great grandchildren, Ripslinger must still love teens,
as he continues writing books to entertain them.
For more,
visit Ripslinger’s blog.
Description:
“Kyle
Donovan’s life is shattered when his mother goes missing and his father is
accused of dismembering her and dumping her pieces into the Mississippi River.
He expects his dad's trial for the crime to solve the mystery, but when it ends
in a hung jury, Kyle must make a difficult choice: live with the agonizing
uncertainty that’s destroying him and his little sister, Kelly, or find the
truth himself, no matter what the cost. Either way, he’ll lose at least one
parent, but he might be able to salvage what’s left of a normal life for him
and Kelly. Compelled by a desperate need to end the madness that his life has
become, and with the help of Becky, one of the only people at school who will
still talk to him, Kyle forces himself to follow a string of clues the police
missed and struggles to face the terrible truth about his own role in his
mother’s disappearance.”
Appraisal:
Missing Pieces is a mystery suitable for the older
teen, although stricter parents might object on grounds of language or content.
Although there is a mystery that the protagonist, Kyle, sets out to solve, I
found the psychological and sociological subtext to the story at least as
compelling as the mystery. How Kyle and his younger sister Kelly deal with the
disappearance of their mother, how the relationship between parent and child is
often illogical when viewed from the outside, and the dynamics of a small town,
all add significantly to the story. The defense mechanism that Kyle and Kelly
have which allows them to envision a happy ending where, at least to me, it was
obvious there was no plausible way for that to happen, actually helped drive
the story rather than ruin its credibility. My only significant complaint about
Missing Pieces are the courtroom
scenes near the end, which didn’t ring true for me.
FYI:
Some adult
language and adult themes.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues
Rating: **** Four stars
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