I don’t know how to start this review. I liked the book for the most part because Maude, the main character, was persistent in her insistence that her friend Elizabeth was missing although Maude was suffering from severe short term memory lose which I can only suppose was from Alzheimer’s disease.

Maude is the narrator and as you can imagine we share her confusion and lose of time and people and actions along with her but yet Maude remembers the distant past very clearly. Her sister disappeared around 70 years ago and Maude remembers it all.

I believe the author has gotten Maude’s character down very well. The little things like being embarrassed because she can’t remember what she had gone to the store to buy and covering it up by picking up cans of peaches that she just purchased the day before. Writing herself notes because she is only too aware that she forgets things and forgetting whether it is day or night when she looks at the clock and sees that it’s 3:00.

The interesting part of the story is the mystery of what happened to her sister, Sukie, all those years ago and how Maude’s insisting that Elizabeth is missing finally leads to the solution of the disappearance of her sister.

3.5

Maud is an old woman with one recurring thought: her friend Elizabeth is missing. Is she? She's been becoming a bit forgetful lately. She's not quite sure if Elizabeth really is missing, but maybe she should pass by her home and check. The mystery reminds her of the time her sister went missing, after the war. These two storylines, one sharp with detail and one cloudy with doubts, creates Healey's Elizabeth is missing.

I was lucky to be offered by Penguin to read a complementary e-copy via netgalley. I was at first a bit skeptical on how the Alzheimer's would affect the narration, even more after seeing it was told in a first person POV, but I was much more curious about it. I can now say that it fit with the narration. In very few times were actions repeated because Maud had forgotten about it. Usually Helen, her daughter, informed her (and the reader) on the repetition of actions, as well as the actions that weren't narrated because of the memory loss.

A bit on the two storylines, though. At first, I found it very well balanced but I couldn't find the connection between Sukey and Elizabeth's disappearances. (Other than the fact that they both were, you know, missing.) Towards the middle of the book, the connection was becoming a bit clearer and it was still well balanced. More towards the end of the book, however, I found that the narration steered more towards Sukey's disappearance and I found myself becoming much more interested in this storyline than Elizabeth's. The connection becomes clear then and, sure, the ending can also explain why her storyline got more attention. I understand that. As I said, the ending explains a bit of why Maud had lost some interest on Elizabeth, on why she asked but didn't do much about the disappearance. Personally, I'd rather that the storylines had remained considerably balanced. It could've showed more from Maud's interaction with her family and wondering about Elizabeth. I think this would've kept my interest about the matter, instead of moving most of it to Sukey's disappearance.

Other than that, I found this book to be quite good. I'd recommend it to anyone who'd like a mystery novel with a different perspective in the POV.