Missing Person Mystery & Nonviolent True Crime

This combines a few tropes that I like: the women that get called “unlikable”; returning home after “escaping”; and missing person cases. And it also reminded me of The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka in tone, the way it unfolds, and with the messy family. Growing up in a small Minnesota town, Mary wanted out, both to flee the bullying and the way she was looked at. Her chance at this came when she was accepted into an Ivy league school. She lost weight dangerously with an eating disorder and felt like she got to start with a blank slate, so she didn’t have to wear the unpopular label anymore. Until she was expelled her senior year.

Now, back home, she’s lying to everyone about why she’s back, working at a grocery store, and being reminded of what a huge disappointment she is by her father. Then a frenemy from childhood goes missing, and Mary thinks the case has to be connected to another missing young woman who disappearance hasn’t gotten much attention because she’s a Black woman. With no one listening to her, she decides to look into it herself, including pretending to be a reporter to get access to family members.

Struggling with her own issues and pointing her energy into finding these women, she finds herself making more enemies as she inches closer to the truth and placing herself in danger…

(TW eating disorder/ fatphobia, bullying/ racism/ attempted suicide not completed, detail/ sharing of nude pic without permission)

This is a great nonviolent true crime that will leave you thinking about it long after you finish it. Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up to become an identity theft expert after her family became victims of identity theft back before there were laws and information on the crime.

Betz-Hamilton takes you into her lonely childhood, her parents cutting them off from family and friends after their identity was stolen over a fear of not being able to trust anyone–a fear that she internalized–and into her college years where she became a victim of identity theft again. It’s a memoir about her life that centers the never being able to escape the damage from the crime that began when she was little, a crime that wasn’t actually solved until she was a grown adult.

Spoiler-y: The book unfolds giving you the information the way Betz-Hamilton grew up receiving it with the discovery of the crime’s perpetrator being a “twist” because that’s how it happened in her life. It wasn’t necessary though for the purpose of the book to be successful because 1. it’s a true story and 2. the impact is the same whether you know beforehand or not because the action stays the same.

(TW cancer/ disordered eating/ brief mention of past domestic abuse, miscarriage/ gaslighting)