This is a Middle Grade, Epic Fantasy series. It tells the tale of 3 newly knighted individuals (Raven, Romda and Ravai) who are set off on various missions for the kingdom. In this book, they have been sent to a town that has one-third of their population has disappeared. The three meander their way through their very first missing persons case. They must find the abducted people, interrogating a sea of eccentric characters. In the end, they find something completely unexpected and a new strange adversary to the kingdom.
This is a Middle Grade, Epic Fantasy series. It tells the tale of 3 newly knighted individuals (Raven, Romda and Ravai) who are set off on various missions for the kingdom. In this book, they have been sent to a town that has one-third of their population has disappeared. The three meander their way through their very first missing persons case. They must find the abducted people, interrogating a sea of eccentric characters. In the end, they find something completely unexpected and a new strange adversary to the kingdom.
In the northwest quadrant of the kingdom, there exists a town named Ashton. At its local downtown pub, quite a number of people have gathered. In a room full of heated discussions, a young man is escorted to the front of the room by the leaders of the group.
“Tell him your story, Jerry,” a man says stoically.
A bit of worry overcomes the young man. He explains, “I don’t know what to say. Both my mother and my older brother are gone. I have no idea where they would have gone. I know that may not sound abnormal, but they disappeared quickly, and I’ve heard nothing from them. No one here has seen them either.”
The man tries to calm Jerry. “Don’t worry, we believe you. Not only is your mother a very decent and responsible person, but others have gone missing as well. We’ve brought the sheriff here to help us.”
Sheriff Braun walks forward and quickly states, “We’ve been alerted to a few missing persons, but after hearing everyone’s testimony, it is clear that there are many more missing than were originally reported. Unfortunately, thus far, I’ve been working on this without much success. I’m afraid that with all of these new cases, I’m a bit overwhelmed. I’m not sure that I am being effective.”
The leader comes forward one more time. “We understand. You can’t be expected to run all of this to ground, but this seems too big for us to handle on our own. I think it’s time to go to the castle with this.” The people discuss their next step. Although the discussion gets animated, they determine that going to the king with their concerns is the best action to take. The next day Sheriff Braun rides off to the castle.
In a short time, Sheriff Braun reports the news to the inner court. The king appears concerned. He has many questions. “How could so many be gone? Is it possible that they went missing together? Are the missing citizens up to something?”
Sheriff Braun says, “I suppose it could be, but I would doubt it. In some cases, these people are close. In others, they don’t necessarily have a lot in common. I’ve yet to have any success in my searches. You would think that they would leave behind at least a few clues.”
The king deliberates. “Let me dispatch Raven, Romda, and Ravai. They’ve done a good job with the kingdom’s defense. It might be a good time to start expanding their investigative powers.”
In the gym, Raven and Ravai practice their skills. Ravai has a large club and is trying to brutishly break through Raven’s defenses. Raven keeps stepping back, not allowing himself to get hit, with each blow impacting Raven’s shield. The king’s assistant enters and pauses, observing the action. He crosses his arms.
Ravai takes large steps, trying to wind up for maximum power. It looks as if he is half-hoping to break the shield. Raven waits for Ravai to pull back his club for the next strike. When Ravai does, Raven swings his short sword aiming for Ravai’s meshed stomach, which is now sticking out. He barely misses as Ravai recoils his abdomen with haste.
Ravai exclaims, “HA! Not even close!” Ravai then jumps on Raven with both falling to the floor.
The king’s assistant is about to speak. Romda, who comes from another door, beats him to it. “I can see you are putting your time to good use. Hey, I’m almost done with my experiment. Would one of you help me?”
“Um, no,” says Ravai.
“I guess,” says Raven, “but I don’t really want to … you know, based on what happened last time to Ravai.”
Romda and Raven start to smile, then almost seem to giggle.
“Ahem.” The assistant finally gets in a word. They finally notice him. “The king would like you to find some missing people. Please let me fill you in on the details.” And so, the three are informed of the events that have happened in Ashton.
After the assistant is done, he asks, “Any questions?”
Ravai has one. “Who do you think would have won our spar? Me, right?”
The assistant does not look very interested in the question and is a little deflated. He states, “Maybe the king needs to pick knights more suited for this job.”
“Probably me,” Raven responds to Ravai instead of the assistant.
“Probably me,” Ravai retorts.
“No, me,” Raven can’t help but add.
The assistant sighs and leaves.
This is my first time reading one of Dave Maruszewski’s books and, despite The Missing being the third instalment in a series, I was surprised and pleased that I was easily able to follow along with the plot.
Aimed at teens and younger readers, Maruszewski makes a conscious effort to ensure his book is family friendly – with no bad language, lewd scenes, or gore. This doesn’t mean there isn’t action within the story but I feel the author finds a good balance in his fight scenes without leaning too heavily into violence. There is the occasional jump scare but again Maruszewski falls on the right side of creepy rather than horror. I love that the author has really taken the time to consider his audience whilst constructing the story.
The Missing is a quick and manageable read. The story is fast-paced and the plot is continually moving forward. Maruszewski makes sure that every chapter is important. There are plenty of character interactions and I liked that there was a clear goal that our protagonists were working towards.
The Missing is essentially a detective story. Although Raven, Romda and Ravai are a team they each have their own ideas about how best to solve the case and find the missing townsfolk. These differences lead to minor disagreements within the group and we see the knights split up to search for clues. Each of the trio has a distinctive personality which helped me to distinguish the characters from each other. As this is a book for younger readers, I also liked the message/teaching moment of learning to work together rather than against each other to solve a problem – as is shown in the story’s conclusion.
The town is filled with lots of different characters, such as: the Mayor, Young Rick, Rollie, and Sherriff Braun, which I’m sure will entertain lots of readers. However for me personally there was a few too many characters to keep track of and unfortunately I kept finding myself being pulled out the story as I had to remind myself of who was who amongst the townsfolk.
Even though I know this was a deliberate choice by the author, I struggled with the lack of description given to the characters. I understand and actually really like the author’s sentiment of not describing the physical features of his characters to allow readers to imagine themselves, or someone who looks like them, in the role. However by not describing any aspect of the characters, not even their clothes or weapons, I found it difficult to picture the characters in my head. Similarly I felt that the town of Ashton was also lacking in those descriptive details which would have helped to me visualise what was happening whilst I was reading.
I had mixed feelings when reading The Missing but I am also aware that I do not fall into the intended audience for this book. In my view the story has both its strengths and weaknesses but I sincerely hope Maruszewski is able to continue his series for a long time.