E.A. Jackson’s debut novel, Missing, was everything I was looking for in a police procedural set in London. I liked the way she handled the cold case set in 1990, writing it as a straightforward current investigation, rather than using flashbacks. Then, she followed that case up with the investigating detective, Detective Chief Superintendent Martha Allen, handling the case thirty years later.
In August 1990, Thomas and Viv Carpenter were on a short trip to London when they reported their baby disappeared from their hotel room in the early morning hours. The window had been open during the heat wave to allow in a little air. When Carpenter arose around 6 AM, baby Bella was gone. Detective Inspector Martha Allen headed up the investigation. However, when a young woman calling herself Nell Beatty turned the baby in at the police station, the case was over. Although Allen thought something was wrong about the case and the young woman, she was ordered to let the Carpenter case go. Then, thirty years later, she gets a call from a police officer who once worked the Baby Bella case. He’s now the Detective Chief Inspector in Bristol who is investigating the murder of Nell Beatty.
Thirty years later, Martha Allen is still fixated on the Carpenter case, and her long ago suspicions. Now, with Nell Beatty back on her radar, she’s in a position to look back at that old case while connecting it to Nell’s death, and her unknown life.
Jackson delves deeply into Martha Allen’s own obsession with the Baby Bella case, and the people involved in it. Allen knows she’s bucking the old boys’ network from thirty years ago, one that still has some pull. But, she works by several pieces of advice from her original training sergeant. “”Good detection…was 90 percent details. Slow and careful wins our race. that’s why they call us the plod.” Then there’s the advice she worked with her entire career. “Accept nothing. Believe nothing. Challenge everything.” The reader will want to remember that with the unexpected ending of this intriguing police procedural, Missing.
Missing by E.A. Jackson. Atria, 2025. 298p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
