A romantic getaway gone awry! 

I can't believe I almost missed this book, but I'm so fortunate that a last-minute interviewer need helped place this book in my hands. Bree and her boyfriend, Ty, go on a weekend getaway to Jersey City/Manhattan. Bree thinks Ty has just been distracted with work the whole trip and tries to push the annoyances out of her head when suddenly a body is found in their Airbnb. Missing White Woman will keep you hooked as Bree tries to navigate finding justice while not ending up subject to a police system and media system that is primed to disbelieve her. Kellye Garrett crafts an interesting read that comments on social media's involvement in true crime and public opinion as well as how certain biases make it difficult for individuals of different races or backgrounds to fully rely on the police force and the community. Overall, this is a gripping book that lets you sit with the information, and I loved the inclusion of TikTok and other social media platforms to layer into the work. I wish the ending had a bit more time to settle and go over the events of the crime. Between wrapping up the information regarding the murder's motive and the new findings in the epilogue I was a bit unsure of how everything went down, but I guess not knowing the full events is part of the journey. Bree is left only with the pieces she has at her disposal. 

(As someone who lived in Jersey City and worked in Manhattan, I loved seeing the different names of streets and places. Shoutout to the PATH!)

It was meant to be a romantic getaway in New York City. Just Breanna and her new boyfriend, Ty. They hired out an airbnb four-story house with a beautiful view of the skyline. Until Bree wakes up one morning to discover a dead woman in her foyer and Ty’s missing. Is the dead woman Janelle Becker, a recently missing dog walker that the media is reporting on and social media is a buzz over? 

A Black woman stranded in a strange city, Bree is scared. A black person involved in the white person’s disappearance/murder isn’t a good look. And she knows how the Police sees her. And until she can find Ty, the only person who can help her is an ex-best friend, a lawyer who Bree shares a complicated history with. 

But as the Police and the social media mob close in, Bree realises that the only way to stay out of jail is to discover what happened that night. But is she going to like what she finds…?

I finished this last week at an airport and this is a really nice holiday thriller to read by the pool with an iced cocktail of your choice. However, the more I think about my time reading this, the more I feel like I was tricked by the beautiful cover and what I read wasn’t what I signed up for. 

Yes, this is a thriller with a murder and complex friendship at its heart. Yes, it makes for very easy reading. However, I found a good chunk of the story quite slow and that, within the first few chapters, it just tried too hard. 

It tried too hard to make you like Breanna and her mysterious past, it tries too hard to make us like her and Ty’s relationship, tries too hard to make you care about the missing Janelle (aka the missing white woman of the title) and Ty when he disappears (not a spoiler, it’s in the blurb), it tried too hard with the messy friendship with her ex-best friend, it tries too hard to tackle the issues of race, identity, the media and social media obsession with true crime (especially when it features a white, blond woman at its heart), online detectives and the dangers of social media and how the narrative online can be twisted to push an agenda. All this is forced at the read within the first few chapters and it’s like a sledgehammer. It felt as if the author wanted to drill in these point very early on and, because of that, some of the mystery vanished. And I can’t help but wonder that if the writing was more subtle, all these issues could still have been tackled still be tackled with subtly and nuance.

I did like what the book was trying to do and I did like the writing (so I am going to try Kellye Garrett again), but the execution was messy. 

Bree goes on a weekend getaway with her new boyfriend (Ty), who she doesn’t know as well as she should because that would mean getting closer and revealing things about herself too–including the arrest that changed the trajectory of her life and ended her friendship with her former best friend (Adore). So when Adore pops up like a blast from the past to come to her aid, them pairing up to unravel the mystery also leads to them unraveling their fallout. I thought I knew where the plot was going and was humbled the entire way. The synopsis doesn’t do the plot twists justice. I didn’t eat this book up, it ate ME up.

I would recommend this to people who enjoy crime thrillers or people looking to get into crime thrillers with a strong book. I also think this is a great match for people who have complicated relationships with true crime, particularly the community around it. I think the strongest aspect of this book is the fact that the writer knows what she’s talking about: the social issues surrounding true crime are the foundation of this book rather than scene-dressing, and she’s clearly well-versed in her genre, so the meeting of those two elements is practically perfect. The only thing left to be desired here is a pinch more character development—and a lot of that is because I enjoyed these characters so much that I wish we got to spend maybe 25 to 50 more pages with them. I think extending the ending just a little bit would have been nice—I loved the final shot we’re left on, but I would have loved to see one more scene of Bree and Adore. I’m very interested in seeing what Kellye Garrett writes next, and I’m hoping to read her already published works in the future.

As someone who grew up over-exposed to true crime and still consumes it in as conscious and critical a way as I can while also being very alarmed by certain aspects of the community, especially in conjunction with the way we as a society are conditioned to think about crime, this book really spoke to me. The narrative is very compelling. It’s both a quintessential twisty thriller and overall very believable, something that I really appreciate in the genre but often feel isn’t executed well—this, however, is a book that pulls it off. There’s an interesting throughline about trust and the unreliable ground it stands on: both interpersonal—trust in one’s loved ones and trust in strangers, in community—and systemic—trust in the establishment, in news media, and in social media. The way it intertwines with themes of identity and betrayal is potent and effective.

The cast was very memorable to me, each character’s dynamic with Bree being compelling and unique. The complicated friendship between Bree and Adore spoke to me; losing close friends and finding your way back to them is something I don’t see enough in books. The chemistry built up at the beginning between Bree and Ty was believable and electric, even in moments of tension, lending to the effectiveness of the mystery. I appreciate that the secondary narratives are tied into the overarching plot so well—for example, Bree’s backstory is used not only to explain her internal conflicts about persons of interest, but it anchors her relationships with Adore and her mother.

The pacing is straightforward and mostly linear, with some backstory exposition peppered through it when necessary, and it’s an incredibly quick read, easy to get sucked into. Repetition is occasionally utilized here for dramatic effect, but it’s not overdone. Conflict is built well: the plot and backstory threads are woven together well to create recurring tensions. The resolutions, while leaving room for a little mystery at the end, are well-earned and satisfying. The stakes are well-established and remain consistently high throughout.

There’s a stylistic element of fragmenting sentences, with a reasonable amount of structural and length variation to balance them out. Visual and sensory description are well-employed, and not overwhelming. Character voice is captured well throughout dialogue, being consistent, natural, and without sacrificing characterization. The e-ARC itself was a little buggy, but the construction of the book itself is solid: lucid grammar and word choice paired with strong, clear syntax. The style is persistent and congruous to the narrative, and the third-person limited perspective captures Bree’s way of thinking well.