All The Missing Girls, by Megan Miranda
All the missing girls is yet another book in the genre of “girls gone crazy” which has been sweeping the bookstores lately (think Gone Girl, Girl on a Train, Perfect Stranger – by the same author – and even Big Little Lies to some degree…). Admittedly the genre is getting a little tiresome, but this particular book has a unique approach – the author channels the movie Memento and tells the story in reverse. After setting the stage for the mystery of the titular Missing Girls, the author jumps two weeks into the future and writes each subsequent chapter one day earlier. My impression is that she very cleverly manages to uncover the mystery in this way, even though you realize at the end that the characters in the book already knew the answer from day 1. (To truly judge her skill, I would actually have to read the book again, but I’m not giving out any grade here so I’ll just stick with impressions.)
I am very impressed with Megan Miranda as a mystery writer. She has (so far) managed to avoid my dislike of LARGE PLOT TWISTS in favour of subtle inferences and slow reveals that keep you guessing about at least some plot points right to the end. The thing is, what I like about mysteries is not knowing what’s going to happen, and to be honest, I don’t try very hard to figure things out because I’m actually in it for the surprise. I treat magic shows the same way. I’ll do whatever I can to avoid seeing anything that might give away the trick because, to quote Fox Mulder, “I want to believe”!
This reminds me of a story. Once upon a time, when part of my job was to (wo)man the corporate booth at trade shows, a popular “draw” was to have a magician perform in order to attract an audience to your booth. I loved this, and would cruise the trade show floor looking for the magic shows. I once stumbled across a man performing one of my favourite tricks (large metal rings that would appear to spontaneously interlink and separate upon intoning a magic phrase). Unfortunately for the child in me, this man was a poor magician and it was ridiculously easy to figure out how the trick was done. I have felt cheated and disappointed ever since. This was 25 years ago.
Mystery books are the same for me. First, if there is a LARGE PLOT TWIST, this invariably becomes a selling feature (“you’ll never see the plot twist coming!”) and this in and of itself is a huge spoiler! When I know there is a plot twist, I spend entire potentially enjoyable reading moments keeping an eye out for it. Plus, if you happen to figure out the twist, the book is basically ruined. Same for movies, BTW. But when the book uses slow reveals, there is no big plot twist distraction and even if you figure one thing out, there’s another reveal coming that still has the chance of surprise. I find this approach so much more satisfying. I hope Megan keeps this style up!
Rating: I am borderline between borrow and buy. I would have gone with borrow it, but I am considering starting a Megan Miranda collection.
PS My all-time favourite Seinfeld episode is the one where the characters all travel to India to attend a friend’s wedding and guess what? The whole episode is told in reverse! I think I have a “type”.