Although this novel does not achieve what the publisher claims in the dust jacket, a thriller impossible to put down, it is clear to me that the writer has talent and will probably deliver a much better work given another chance.
Sarah Pribeck is a detective that cares about her job, finding missing persons. She has been out of a partner since Genevieve's daughter was raped and murdered and the killer got away on a technicality. Genevieve is having a really tough time dealing with her daughter's loss and Sarah finds herself disoriented when her husband, Shiloh, disappears on the weekend he was supposed to travel to Quantico, to start the FBI program as a new trainee. Through the first moments of the search we realize how important Genevieve is to Sarah, since the latter keeps going back to the tips and recommendations the former provided in the past. With the time running against her and without being able to convince Genevieve to help, Sarah finds herself taking a plunge into Shiloh's past in the search for clues to solve the mysterious disappearance, finding a myriad of things she did not know about the man she has been married to for two months.
There are several things that Compton does astoundingly well; for example the description of the characters and their emotions. I also find interesting the fact that the author focuses on creating a thriller with no romantic undertones; one can get tired of the formula used by many in which a female heroine is drawn to a "strong male" in the setting of a mystery thriller. Where I find a major flaw is in the way that the story is structured, the action keeps stopping for long intervals to go back to events from the past, which in my opinion severely cuts the intensity the book has. With the quality of her writing and the good development of the characters, the author can reach much higher heights that the one she achieved in this first novel.