Book ~ "Local Woman Missing" (2021) Mary Kubica

From Goodreads ~ People don’t just disappear without a trace ...

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find ...

Eleven years ago, Shelby was out jogging late at night and disappeared. When Meredith and her young daughter, Delilah, disappear not long after, the community wonders if the disappearances are connected, especially since Meredith had recently been Shelby's doula, and search parties are organized. We eventually find out what happened with Shelby and Meredith but no one knows what happened to Delilah. Josh, her father, and Leo, her younger brother, carry on but their lives are never the same ... Josh is forever hopeful that Delilah will come home some day.

Fast forward to today and Delilah, now a teenager, is found bloody and emaciated. After DNA tests confirm she is in indeed Delilah, she is returned home to live with Josh, and Leo. Needless to say, she has difficulty fitting in with her family and Leo has a hard time accepting her because he doesn't remember her.

I thought this story was okay. It's written in first person perspective in Delilah's, Kate's (Josh and Meredith's neighbour), Meredith's and Leo's voices and it jumps back and forth to 11 years ago to today (the chapters are labeled). There were a few side stories that I could have done without like the visit to the obstetrician (!!) and the dramas with the best friend (that was silly) and the daycare provider but I guess they were there to add tension. I found it amazing that they would return a girl who has been missing for 11 years and has obviously been abused back to her family pretty well on the day after she was found. And I can't believe the police were that dumb. I wasn't buying the ending (the "whodunnit"). As a head's up, there is violence and swearing.