Alix Ohlin, The Missing Person

The Missing Person By Alix Ohlin

Three years ago Lynn Fleming left Albuquerque to study art history as a graduate student in New York. Her mom notices her scorn towards her dusty hometown as if Brooklyn and Manhattan are the world. Mom is concerned that her son Wylie cut off his phone and refuses to talk to her. Mom, a travel agent, informs her not listening daughter that she booked a flight for her via Minneapolis to come home to talk sense into Wylie who has been abducted by eco-freaks.

Knowing her research grant is gone and her affair with her married faculty advisor finished though he offers a final Paris fling, Lynn returns to Albuquerque. Finding her younger brother proves easy. Wylie's eco-criminal crony Angus and Lynn begin an affair as she is attracted to his upbeat charm until she begins seeing a dangerous side to her lover as she becomes involved with the risky actions of Wylie's eco-terrorist group. She even makes progress on her dissertation when she finds two works left by her late father painted by a 1970s local artist Eva Kent who has tragic ties to her parents.

THE MISSING PERSON is a well written character study as much as a mystery that hooks the audience the moment mom refuses to take no as an answer from her daughter. Lynn holds the tale together several intriguing subplots converge through her as she struggles with the past that seems to have imposed a will on her present and immediate future. Don't let the title fool you, this is not an amateur sleuth investigation, but instead a must read bittersweet tale for fans who appreciate a strong family drama.

Harriet Klausner