Review: The Mystic and the Missing Girl: A Mystery

The Mystic and the Missing Girl: A Mystery by Vikki VanSickle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have read so many books in the last couple of months that I really disliked for one reason or another, that it thrills me to say that this book was everything I needed to get back on the right track. I really, really loved this book.

This book had a quirky cast of characters, a great almost unsolvable mystery, a likable FMC, and used no obvious tropes to get us to the ending. It was filled with surprises, and it even had a kitten!

There really is no need for me to say much about this book that you can't get from reading the summary. But I will say this: if you like cozy mysteries with a bit of speculative fiction, small towns, no obvious romance ( a mere possibility of one at a future time) and character-driven novels, then this one will definitely be for you. 

I think it would do well in a book club setting, since there's so much about this mystery to discuss, and it would definitely be an excellent read for the upcoming Halloween/Samhain holiday!

*ARC supplied by the publisher Minotaur Books/Macmillan, the author, and NetGalley.

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SUMMARY: "Reluctant psychic Drew Benson can read tarot cards and get impressions from objects—she just never expected to use her gifts to investigate an infamous cold case.

Drew Benson has a secret. She gets visions, something she hasn’t tapped into since she was a teenager, when her late aunt, a TV psychic known as Hannah Mystic, became the scapegoat in the unsolved disappearance of a local teenager. Twenty years later, Drew is happy to ignore her gift, focusing instead on keeping the metaphysical shop she inherited from Hannah afloat, wrangling her sole, astrology-obsessed employee, and dodging local rake Foster Banks in her picturesque lakeside hometown.

But when Drew's arch-nemesis from high school, now a big city reporter, decides to investigate the cold case from all those years ago, it’s Drew’s ability that could finally make a break in the decades old mystery. With bills piling up, a disapproving mother laying on the guilt, and a local vandal who wants Drew and her witchy store gone, Drew has a lot to lose. But what she stands to gain—finding out what happened to the missing teen, clearing her aunt’s name, and a second chance at belonging—could change everything.

In The Mystic and the Missing Girl, Vikki VanSickle seamlessly draws readers into an utterly charming world in this unputdownable, small town mystery.