Missing Pictures

From the 4-time award winning author of A Whisper of Smoke comes a female friendship love story that explores the gritty realities of living with mental illness with sharply dark humor and an interminable optimism, culminating in an unforgettable story that will either leave you with an empathy you didn’t expect, or feeling understood like never before.



Fresh from a painful divorce, Claire is on leave from work, depressed, and possibly failing as a mother, and group therapy at the psych hospital seems like the answer. But instead of fixing her, she instead stumbles into an unlikely friendship with Tasha and Gretchen, two women with their own brands of mental illness. With unconditional acceptance and unfailing humor, they encourage Claire to re-enter the Nashville dating scene on her journey to reclaiming herself. Unfortunately, the selection consists of middle-age rejects, young guys suffering from beer fog (who are warmer in bed than vibrators though significantly less reliable), or judgmental men that remind her how far she’s fallen.



Nothing in her life is what it once was. But when things fall apart for Tasha and Gretchen, Claire is faced with a truly terrifying prospect — what it means to live with mental illness, including that a friendship rooted in it can be as dangerous as can be comforting, and also that Group isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning. And time is running out. If Claire can’t get to a better place, she could lose the career she's worked so hard for, any chance at a healthy relationship, maybe even custody of her daughter. Will Claire find a path to a future worth living, even if it may not look like the life she lost? And will her friendship with Tasha and Gretchen what saves her or destroys her?



Sort of like Girl, Interrupted meets the Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce (except with discount shoes), MISSING PICTURES is an honest depiction of women with mental illness that doesn't just present them as caricatures or oddities, or focus on shock elements. It shows, in a real way, what it is to live with mental illness every day, and still have jobs, responsibilities and relationships, and how a beautiful friendship can be borne from the shared experience.



“A raw, emotional foray into the harrowing and yet hilarious capriciousness of mental illness… a novel that can meet you at your darkest moment and give you the power to decide to save your own life.” Reedsy Editor



Trigger Warning: References to sexual assault (not explicit), depiction of suicidal ideations and delusional psychosis.