The Missing by Tim Gautreaux

I just finished The Missing & I was actually sad when it was finished. I fell in love with the characters & story in the first pages. Gautreaux’s novel follows the life of Sam Simoneaux (aka Lucky,an ironic nickname) as he weaves his way through life after being orphaned as an infant. In the aftermath of WW1, Lucky has the unfortunate task of dismantling bombs & grenades on the old battlefields. His regiment accidentally bombs an orphaned young girl’s village & he takes it to heart, accepting responsibility.

Then on his return home, everyone (including himself) blames him when he is unable to prevent the abduction of a little girl from a New Orleans department store. He decides to work with the girl’s parents on a riverboat as it works it way up & down the Mississippi, while he searches for clues to her disappearance. The crew & performers on the dance boat provide a wealth of funny & tragic characters. Simon must also confront various backwoods clans along the river bottoms. These characters are scary Eventually he needs to face the death of his own family & deal with the idea of revenge.

About half way in the book, Lucky makes another bad decision. I thought come on, can he really make this many bad decisions? Then, as I digested parts of the book, I thought of people I know & love & some of the repeat mistakes that they make. Yes, some people really do continue to make bad decisions. I highly recommend this book & will be looking forward to more titles by Mr. Gautreaux.