Sarah Langan The Missing

The Missing

Sarah Langan

Harper, Sep 2007, $6.99

ISBN 9780060872915

Though the two remote Maine towns are neighbors separated by woods, they are radically different as Corpus Christie is an affluent community while Bedford is a run down manufacturing environmental nightmare. Corpus Christi third-grade schoolteacher Lois Larkin takes her class on a field trip to nearby Bedford. The innocent inadvertently uncovers a buried plague.

Almost immediately law abiding people behave violently towards family and neighbors. No one can sit still as everyone seems to behave irritated and angry. The transformation continues as the townsfolk metamorphosis into something inhuman with the malevolence spreading at an incredibly rapid speed from person to person. Soon the once comfortable community of Corpus Christie looks like a battlefield, which it is for if humanity fails to restrict the evil to this town, the state, country, and world will be devoured in a short time.

This is an exciting horror thriller as the audience will feel they are alongside the townsfolk caught in a web of evil. The story line is action-packed, but character driven by the townies who evolve from optimistic to fatalistic. Although the evil in bones live long after the person is interred, the only thing missing from this tense thriller is the cause of why the malevolence began; the effect is chilling. Still Sarah Langan proves she is a genre royal with this small town Maine horror thriller.

Harriet Klausner