Publication Date May 6, 2025

I started listening to the Crime Junkie podcast waaaay back in 2017 (true crime has been my friend for years – when I worked in a public library, I could frequently be found in the 364.1523 section. I have mostly enjoyed it (due to Ashley more than Brit, TBH) except for that period when the plagiarism thing was rampant (although admittedly when I taught research, the section on attribution and citing one’s sources went over many people’s heads, in all honesty). So I would say I’m about 60% positively inclined toward things that are “Crime Junkie adjacent.” I received a copy of Ashley’s second book The Missing Half from Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review, and I was happy to see that Ashley’s “co-author” Alex Kiester is acknowledged prominently on the cover.. 

I’ve seen this referred to as a true crime story, and while it’s been awhile since I read it, to meit was fiction…not even “faction,” as is the weird term sometimes applied t fictionalized versions of real events.  Whatever – in this book, the protagonist is  Nicole “Nic” Monroe. She is twenty-four, living in what sounds like a terrible place in a terrible state. As if that’s not enough, she has a pity job (family friend is her boss) that is going nowhere and she lives alone in…well, you get the idea. Oh, and she just got a DUI. She is a mess, having “...learned years ago that numbness is better than pain.” Seven years ago, her sister Kasey vanished and she has been an object of pity and sympathy ever since. She isn’t lacking in self-awareness: “I can’t keep living like this. I can’t keep avoiding my pain by drinking myself to sleep and hoping someone else will come along and clean up after me.”  

Kasey’s car was found 100+ miles from home, with the door open and her purse on the seat – untouched, apparently. Weirdly, another young woman from the same area disappeared in the same way two weeks before Kasey. Both quickly became ice cold cases. The other woman who disappeared also had a sister, and one day that sister shows up and together the two of them go on an adventure, each one wanting to find their “missing half.”

It’s a fun read, and I didn’t guess the mystery (not unusual for me) but in all honesty it was gone from my brain almost instantly and I couldn’t tell you what happened. I recommend it for fans of vanished woman stories, fans of Ashley Flowers, and fans of one-night-stands (as I sometimes call the mysteries I binge read in a day or so). As my friend would say, it is what it is, and there should be copies available at your public library, since there will be lots of interest as the book tour gets rolling. Four stars, rounded down to three based on how memorable it was(n’t).