Booksology The Missing by Fleur McDonald is the second in a loosely linked series based in Kalgoorlie. I don’t tend to get review books from McDonald’s new publisher so only belatedly read both only weeks apart. We met a few of the characters here in The Prospect though I really only remembered Jack, a police officer who (grudgingly) took a demotion to accompany his journalist partner to a new job. Interestingly she is still recovering from injuries sustained from events in that book and back in the city, whereas Jack has opted to stay in Kalgoorlie. Here McDonald also introduces the very likeable Angie who’s recently moved there to take up a promotion, here leading the case of a teenager who disappeared after a party.
Book review: The Missing by Fleur McDonald Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia on 28/10/2025 Source: Purchased Genres: Crime Fiction ISBN: 1460766903 Pages: 352 Goodreads
In the middle of Missing Persons Week, teenager Max Galbraith disappears after a party at the two-up ring on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie. With hundred-year-old mine shafts hidden in the area, no one can sure whether he become lost while he was under the influence of drugs or if something more sinister has happened.
Lily Carter, a talkshow radio host, receives information about Brendan Cook, another Kalgoorlie teenager who disappeared in similar circumstances the year before. But the police didn’t launch a full-scale search for Brendan. Why not?
Enter Detective Angie Sullivan, new to Kalgoorlie and yet to understand how the town works. With no clear links between the two cases, and Lily accusing the police of incompetence, the town is tipped into uproar. What secrets are hiding out there in the bush? And can Angie discover them before any more kids go missing?
My thoughts
I didn’t enjoy The Prospect as much as McDonald’s Dave Burrow series(es) but felt very differently about this and desperately wanted to finish it in one sitting (though chores like cooking dinner beckoned). McDonald takes us back and forward over a few weeks as missing boy Max and his friend Bree come up with a plan to make some quick money which will allow them to escape Kalgoorlie. They’re planning their departure on the night Max disappears.
In the background another newcomer, Lila, who’s joined the fledgling radio station stumbles across old ‘missing person’ posters, featuring a teenager in foster care who went missing but was dismissed by the police as a runaway.
I really liked Angie and McDonald blends her personal and professional lives brilliantly. She felt like a very real character and I became invested in her story very quickly. I also enjoyed the way McDonald gives us snippets (but not overwhelming) insights into Lila and Jack’s personal lives as well. Giving them texture but keeping the focus on the mystery-at-hand.
McDonald’s Dave Burrow books were also set in small rural towns but very centred around farming, whereas these novels are set against a backdrop of mining and fossicking, but happily the Western Australian author seems equally familiar with both worlds.
McDonald takes this in an unexpected direction in terms of the motive behind the disappearances. In fact it was so left field it’s impossible to predict but I really liked the unlikelihood of (the sinister underbelly), because being set in Kalgoorlie it’d be easy to go with obvious outback Australia clichés.
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