Francesca "Frankie" Howe could not be more shocked when she receives a phone call from Daniel, the brother of her long ago best friend, Sophie, informing her that they may have found Sophie's remains. It has been 20 years since Sophie vanished and Frankie is jerked firmly back into the past.

Daniel asks her to come back to her hometown so that everything can possibly be resolved once and for all. Frankie agrees to take leave from her job of managing her families' hotels in London and returns to what used to be home for her. When she arrives, she is assaulted by memories everywhere she looks. She had warned Sophie about dating the very handsome Leon so many years ago but to no avail. She has always held him responsible for Sophie's disappearance.

Frankie is happy to see Daniel again. He has set her up in a nice condo for the duration of her stay. He enlists her help in a little investigative work to see if they can finally get to the bottom of what happened to Sophie. Frankie is fine with that but, from the first moment she enters the tasteful condo, she is uncomfortable. She hears things in the night as well as other things that cannot be explained. In short, there are frightening things happening to her every time she is in that condo.

Then, one night, she swears that she can see a ghostly figure on the end of an abandoned and derelict pier. That figure looks exactly like Sophie. The end of this pier is where Sophie liked to go 20 years ago. Could that really be the ghost of Sophie haunting the very place that she was last seen before disappearing?

Told in multi-voices of LOCAL GIRL MISSING, it grabs you from the very beginning. The tension seems to build with every chapter until you find yourself biting your nails and turning on all the lights in the house. Frankie and Sophie had a close friendship, but they could also be described as "frenemies." The way that Claire Douglas lures you into her world is fascinating and I dare you to be able to put this book down until you have finished it.

One of the things that I truly loved about LOCAL GIRL MISSING is how Ms. Douglas spins a tale that could have been ripped from the headlines of any newspaper today. Then, she takes that and weaves a plot so filled with mysterious occurrences that I had a difficult time leaving it to do some of those mundane chores such as cleaning, cooking, etc.

LOCAL GIRL MISSING is not a complicated book. Anyone can read and understand it. The thing is that what you are witnessing is not what is actually happening. The ending of this tale will truly make your head explode. You will not see it coming yet, when you are treated to the finale, you will understand that there were clues left for you all along. They were just so subtle that you passed them by.

I felt "movie" all over the place as I read LOCAL GIRL MISSING. I even mentally chose the actors to play these characters in said movie. If you have not had a chance to read LOCAL GIRL MISSING, do not wait any longer. Grab a copy today and you will see how a great writer can truly use his or her gift to make you devour a book and have it stay with you a long time once it is finished.