Local Woman Missing

Introduction

Local Woman Missing is a 2021 domestic thriller by Mary Kubica. The novel details the fallout when several people go missing in quick succession, exploring themes such as suburban malaise, trauma, and individualism. Citations in this guide correspond with the Park Row Books edition of the text.

Kubica is a New York Times bestselling author. Her other suspense thrillers include: Local Woman Missing, When the Lights Go Out, Just the Nicest Couple, The Good Girl, The Other Mrs., Every Last Lie, Pretty Baby, Don’t You Cry, and Nothing As It Seems.

Content Warning: This guide mentions neglect and abuse of children, as well as violent death and apparent death by suicide.

Plot Summary

Set in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, the story is told nonchronologically from multiple points of view. Meredith Dickey, a young mother who works as a doula, supporting women through labor, receives a series of anonymous, threatening text messages. They’re from her neighbor Cassandra Hanaka, who recently discovered that her husband, Marty, knew Meredith in college. Though Meredith and Marty dated at the time, Cassandra incorrectly suspects they are now having an affair. Eventually, Cassandra confronts Meredith, severing their once-friendly relationship. Around the same time, Meredith takes on a new client for her doula practice, Shelby Tebow. When the delivery of Shelby’s baby goes poorly, Meredith is scheduled to testify against the obstetrician, Dr. Feingold, in a medical malpractice suit.

Meredith takes her husband Josh to dinner. She plans to tell him about the Hanakas and the lawsuit, which she kept secret to keep him from worrying. Before she can talk to him, they run into their next-door neighbors, Kate and Bea, who are celebrating Bea’s 30th birthday; the four of them eat, drink, and dance. When Bea wants to keep partying, Meredith offers to stay with her and let Kate and Josh leave. By the time Meredith and Bea leave, they are both drunk. As they drive home, they hit and kill Shelby, who was on her way to a tryst. At Bea’s insistence, Meredith helps her hide Shelby’s body.

Over the next few weeks, Meredith is overcome by guilt as Bea works to frame Jason, Shelby’s husband, for Shelby’s death. When Meredith tries to call the police to turn herself in, Bea reluctantly kills her, making her death look like suicide. Bea also captures Meredith’s six-year-old daughter Delilah, who witnessed her attacking Meredith. Bea hides Delilah in the attic of her garage, which was converted into a music studio. Over the next few days, Shelby and Meredith’s bodies are found, but Delilah remains hidden.

About a week after Delilah’s disappearance, a pair of copycat criminals named Eddie and Martha Cutter kidnap a young girl named Carly Byrd, whom they keep in their cellar and brainwash into believing that she is Delilah Dickey. After 11 years in captivity, Carly escapes and is turned in to the police. Assuming she is Delilah, the police send her to live with Josh and Leo, his and Meredith’s son. When a DNA test shows that she isn’t Delilah, one of the officers, who has grown fond of Josh, covers up the results to spare his feelings.

Though Leo is initially suspicious of Carly, he comes to admire her resilience. One day, Piper Hanaka, who was Delilah’s friend before she went missing, shows Leo a picture proving that Carly is not Delilah: Delilah has a cleft chin, but Carly does not. Josh and Leo confront the officer, who admits that she lied about the DNA test.

The police accompany Carly to the Dickey home to gather her things, but she sneaks out of the house through an open window. As they search for her, the police request permission to search Bea’s music studio. Bea flees, leaving Kate, Josh, and the police to discover Delilah still living in the attic of the studio. Delilah is reunited with Josh and Leo, and Carly is returned to her family, while Bea goes to jail. The ending suggests that, though some form of justice has been served, the trauma and ripple effects of Bea’s actions can never be fully resolved.