The Missing Ones
Crestmore Estates appears to be an idyllic, gated haven, but its pristine exterior conceals a foundation of dark secrets.
Half a decade after three locals disappeared into thin air—leaving behind only country club gossip—human remains are discovered on the golf course. The grim find reignites dormant paranoia, turning the community's glaring spotlight onto the women who were left behind.
Andrea Kendal is well aware of the rumors implicating her prominent surgeon husband in his first wife’s gruesome vanishing. Sara Batcher has spent five long years fighting off allegations that she murdered her own spouse. Meanwhile, young trophy wife Katie Morrow is constantly overshadowed by the dark, suspicious legacy of her husband's ex.
With the police closing in, these three women are united by a shared sense of dread, deception, and lingering ghosts. In a community obsessed with maintaining the perfect facade, each must determine exactly how far she will go to defend her pristine life—before someone else shatters it completely.
- Andrea - Eric’s girlfriend
- Cameron - Andrea’s son, 4
- Ryder - Andrea and Eric’s son
- Eric - Andrea’s boyfriend
- Sara - David’s wife
- Maggie - Sara’s house manager
- Mark - Katie’s husband
- Katie - Mark’s second wife
- Roxanne - Eric’s first wife
- Willow - Mark’s first wife
- David - Sara's husband
- Five years ago David, Willow and Roxanne all went missing in separate incidents.
- Now: A human bone is found on the golf course.
- Willow walks into Katie and Mark’s house after being missing, presumed dead for five years.
- Police find and identify the rest of the body as David. He had been weighed down with kettlebells in the lake behind Eric and Andrea’s house.
- David had a Vicodin addiction and was very cruel when he wasn’t on it, so Sara had been drugging him with lorazepam. She fears this contributed to his death in some way.
- Five years ago: The First Missing Person - David
- In public, Mark was an alpha male, but at home he was completely submissive and subservient to Willow. She loved humiliating him and degrading him and he loved it too.
- Willow and Mark picked up David at a bar, took him back to their house, gave him a benzo, and took him to their basement torture room to have a threesome.
- Willow used shock clamps on David at his request and he died before they could call 911.
- Fearing that authorities would not believe this was an accidental death, Willow and Mark attached kettlebells to David and dropped him in the middle of the lake behind Eric’s house.
- Five years ago: The Second Missing Person - Roxanne
- Roxanne’s family is part of a criminal organization, and the next boy to be born will be groomed to be the next head of the family.
- Roxanne is pregnant, and it’s a boy, but she’s keeping it a secret from her family because she wants her baby to live a normal life.
- Roxanne knows that her father will stop at nothing to take her baby and groom him for his future position, so Eric comes up with the idea of faking her death and having her disappear.
- So Roxanne ‘went missing’, gave birth to her and Eric’s son Cameron, then had a lot of plastic surgery and reappeared as Eric’s new girlfriend, Andrea.
- Five years ago: The Third Missing Person - Willow
- Willow fell apart after David’s death and feared that if she stayed and continued her dominating role in the marriage, someone else would end up dead, so she left.
- David’s murder becomes a cold case, freeing Sara of all suspicion that she was involved.
- Katie gives birth to a girl.
- Katie knows that Mark and Willow killed David because she recognizes the kettlebells used to weigh down his body as being one missing from the set in their house, and she keeps this information handy in case she ever needs it.
I found The Missing Ones by A.R. Torre to be more of a character-driven mystery than a fast-paced thriller. Since the disappearances happened five years ago, the plot leans heavily into the lingering aftermath rather than any high-stakes action.
It focuses a lot on the neighbors' present-day lives, giving us all the neighborhood gossip, secrets, and messy dynamics. The medium pacing might feel a bit relaxed if you're a hardcore thriller fan, but the fantastic character development and short chapters kept me turning pages.
The highlight of the book was finally finding out what happened to each missing person. It was a really satisfying payoff, though I wish that specific section had been longer and more detailed! Overall, I thought it was a solid, suspenseful read—especially if you're into suburban drama over traditional, heart-pounding thrills.
- Murder
- Miscarriage
- Infidelity
- Pregnancy
- BDSM
- Prescription drug abuse
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: 9781662534218
Publication Date: April 14, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
