review: last seen leaving by caleb roehrig

Flynn's girlfriend has disappeared. How can he uncover her secrets without revealing his own?

Flynn's girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking questions he can't answer, and her friends are telling stories that don't add up. All eyes are on Flynn—as January's boyfriend, he must know something.
But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January's disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself. ~ Goodreads

Source: ARC provided by the publisher via ALA16

Review:

Thrillers are so hit or miss for me. The procedural aspect bores me, I hate when an author keeps misdirecting me to the point of my not caring who did it and there is usually a lack of relationships so there’s no one to root for.

Roehrig avoids most of these issues by giving us a very relatable 15 year old Flynn as the main protagonist. After an argument, Flynn’s ex-girlfriend January has gone missing and the police show up at his house for questioning. Flynn has a pretty big secret he wants to keep from everyone but is just as worried as everybody else about her disappearance, leading him to do a little snooping on his own. He discovers that the things January told Flynn about her new swanky private HS and job don’t match with reality and he might not know his best friend and ex girlfriend as well as he thought he did.

There are clues to January’s disappearance peppered throughout with plenty of suspects – her politically ambitious step father, his ruthless campaign manager, her pervy step brother, unhinged mother and a number of other people but I felt this was all delivered in a low key way that let you discover the clues on your own and make your guess rather than saying he/she’s the killer! Never mind they aren’t! Psyche! Not that there isn’t any misdirection but it felt natural to the story for me.

Then we have Flynn’s path to self discovery and acceptance via his search for January. Although January is mostly seen only through flashbacks, she’s just as vibrant a character as Flynn.

The author does a fantastic job of weaving Flynn’s memories of his time with January with his present predicament and new blossoming romance. I cared about all parties involved, worried for the outcome and was rooting for Flynn’s happiness.

There were a few awkward transitions between scenes with Flynn and, Kaz, the boy helping him investigate. They would be having a rather intense personal conversation – get sidetracked by the case – then it would pick up a few days later. I would have liked to see how they ended those encounters but that’s a minor nitpick.

I read very few mystery/thrillers so your mileage may vary on whether this works for you. For me Last Seen Leaving was moody, tense and surprisingly sweet and had the right balance of chills and character complexity. I would describe it as a genre cross between coming of age and a thriller. I’m really looking forward to Caleb Roehrig’s next book – White Rabbit.