Unmissing by Minka Kent

An abducted woman escapes after 9 years in captivity to find her husband built a family with another woman.

Author

Diego Dunne
March 11, 2025

Hey, it’s Diego.

I finished reading Unmissing by Minka Kent this week.

And I’m very confused.

Let me give you my spoiler-free unbiased review.

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Unmissing by Minka Kent Review

Unmissing by Minka Kent tells the story of Lydia, a woman who is abducted and returns to her husband’s seemingly perfect new life almost a decade later.

Trigger Warnings: This book contains mentions of sexual assault, torture, physical abuse, rape, and psychological trauma.

It’s a domestic thriller based in a small town.

Domestic thrillers: a subset of psychological thrillers that happen in a “domestic” location. This can be a family home or small town but can also be a hospital, prison, etc.

The premise alone made me buy the book without checking anything else. It’s such a juicy setup. I was expecting she would escape her captor, find the police, and then rebuild her life as her case develops. Not the case. She wants to be the first person to tell her husband, so she ignores the police, doesn’t tell the world she’s back and goes straight to him to seemingly try to win him back.

Minka Kent’s writing style is straightforward and functional—perfect for readers who want a fast, engaging read without heavy descriptions. The alternating perspectives between Lydia and Merritt (the current wife) build tension and the short chapters make for a fast-paced read as the relationship between them develops.

The plot structure is about building tension with one major twist at the end. The biggest issue I had with this book is that as a reader I was kept in the dark about the motivations of the characters, seemingly to help with the twists, which made it hard to connect with any of them.

There is no romance or explicit scenes in this book, it’s all about the tension and complications that come up in the relationships between the characters. The tone of the book is pretty light except for the times Lydia’s abduction is mentioned. But even then the rape and torture are mentioned in passing only, with minimal graphical depictions of violence throughout the story.

So, what about the ending? (No spoilers obviously)

I love my stories to wrap up nicely, with a neat little bow at the end. I like to read a cathartic scene where everything our characters have been through finally pays off physically and emotionally. Then a denouement in another chapter (or chapters) following the characters decompress where things are resolved and I’m left delighted at how well things played out at the end, every plot thread resolved.

The ending wraps up the major plot points, and then we get a short denouement to learn about each character.

Unmissing is a weird story. It’s definitely not what I expected from the premise and unfortunately, I think a lot of character development was sacrificed for the twists. All in all, if you love twists that leave you questioning everything and you don’t mind if you connect with the characters that much, this one could be a great read for you!

Similar Books to Unmissing

  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

  • The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

  • The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

That’s all for this week.

See you next time.

— Diego Dunne

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