Monthly reviews of books written by Indiana authors are made possible by the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards and Indiana Humanities. Opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the reviewer, not any affiliated entity.
The media dubbed them “The Missing Mishawaka Girls.” Two young women who vanished in northern Indiana within weeks of each other. In both cases, the police find the same scene: the woman’s car parked on the side of a desolate country road; one door thrown wide open, the car’s interior light glowing in the dark night.
What happened to the two women—Kasey and Jules—is the mystery at the core of true crime podcaster and New York Times bestselling author Ashley Flowers’ new fictional thriller, The Missing Half.
Seven years after the women’s disappearances, Nic, Kasey’s sister, uses alcohol to numb her grief. She’s working a dead-end job and recently got a DWI. One day, Jenna, Jules’ sister, approaches Nic, hoping they can find a connection between the two women that the police missed. Despite her initial reluctance, Nic helps Jenna, but uncovers more questions than answers—What was the connection between their sisters? What was Kasey hiding in the weeks before she went missing? Did Nic know her sister as well as she thought she did?
The book, which is told first-person from Nic’s perspective, is full of shocking reveals and dramatic twists. But it also shines in quieter moments that show Nic’s loss, like when she finds a binder of Kasey’s old CDs and each one unlocks a memory of her sister— “Kasey and me, Kasey and me, Kasey and me.”
The novel does a thoughtful job showing the reality for crime victims’ loved ones. Early in the book, as the women investigate a lead, they compare the way the media covered their sisters’ disappearances. Nic hates the overly simplified portrayal of Kasey that appeared on every news show. Whereas, Jenna feels her sister didn’t get as much media coverage because of her looks and socioeconomic status.
“She wasn’t beautiful like Kasey, she never had braces, she looked like a smoker[.] But nobody cares about that girl.”
It’s clear Flowers’ podcasting experience not only helped her structure a gripping story but also gave her empathy and awareness for the way media and true crime coverage can impact victims’ loved ones. Flowers and her co-writer, Alex Kiester, make the surviving sisters’ grief feel real, even as it takes different directions—Nic sneaks bottles of wine, unable to commit to even adopting a cat, while Jenna stays meticulous in her search for answers, covering a wall of her home in notes and news articles about the missing women.
While I wish the book had lingered more in the aftermath of its jaw-dropping final reveal, The Missing Half is a fast-paced, wild ride that will keep readers guessing until the end. Despite its rollercoaster pacing, there’s real emotion at its heart. Above all, this is a story about the bond between sisters and how far we’ll go for the ones we love.
Ashley Flowers is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All Good People Here and the #1 female podcaster in the United States, best known as the host of Crime Junkie. She founded audiochuck, an award-winning media company with over 2.5 billion downloads, and Season of Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to funding DNA testing for cold cases. Flowers lives in Indianapolis with her family.
Rebecca McKanna’s short stories have been anthologized in The Best American Mystery Stories 2019 and recognized as distinguished in The Best American Short Stories 2019. She has been published in Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Third Coast, among other publications. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Indianapolis. Don’t Forget the Girl, which won the 2024 Indiana Authors Award in the genre category, is her first novel.
