Missing Since Monday

Chilling and realistic!

I’m not interested in reading Ann M. Martin’s Babysitter’s Club series, but Missing Since Monday is one of two books I’ve read by the author. It’s a great book, especially if you’re into mysteries, suspense stories, and horror stories! While her father and her stepmother are away on a late honeymoon, Maggie and her older brother are in charge of their little sister, four-year-old Courtney for the weekend. When Maggie puts Courtney on the bus to school on Monday morning, she’s not worried; she expects nothing to go wrong. But, in the middle of the day, she receives a phone call from Courtney’s teacher. Courtney never made it to school. To Maggie’s horror, she realizes that Courtney has vanished! Did she wander away from the schoolhouse? Or was she abducted? As Maggie and her family do everything they can to find the little girl, including cooperating with the police and taking their suggestions, Maggie finds herself being plagued by frightening phone calls... and she has the creepiest feeling of being watched... followed. As she does everything in her power to find Courtney, desperately hoping that the little girl is safe and alive, another fear haunts her: The fear that if Courtney isn’t found soon, Maggie, herself, will be the next person to go missing! I love how realistically this tale of a family’s, and a community’s, efforts to find a missing child are portrayed! I’ve never been in a situation of having to track down a missing friend or relative, but this book depicts a family, and even a caring community, taking all of the steps I’ve always heard people should take to try and find a missing person, especially a child. That helps to make this suspenseful story more believable, and therefore, more chilling! The mystery is not only suspenseful, it’s also logical. And the story does a great job of providing readers with clues that make sense in helping them to try and solve the mystery. I’ve always been a huge fan of these older YA horror novels and suspense novels, books that were first written or published in the 70s, 80s, or 90s. This book could give other fans of these books another reason to love these classic teen horror novels. Missing Since Monday handles the plot of a child’s kidnapping so realistically that many readers could mistake this enjoyable, gripping, terrifying work of fiction for being a true story! The Babysitter’s Club series proves that you don’t have to have read every book Ann Martin has written to know that she’s a great writer; fans of suspense will certainly recognize Missing Since Monday as an expertly crafted mystery designed to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat till the end! And the books in The Babysitter’s Club series are not the only great books that this author has written that prove that she doesn’t need to scare readers or keep them involved in a suspenseful mystery to entertain them. If you love teen romance, I highly recommend Just A Summer Romance as a another wonderful read from Ann M. Martin!