The Missing Girl by Australian author Kerry McGinnis is a is a mystery rural fiction with plenty of drama.
Set in the summer of 1990, Margaret (Meg) Morrissey, in her twenties lives in Hahndorf, South Australia, her photojournalist boyfriend Phillip has left to go on assignment overseas not sure when he will return, to make matters worse Meg suddenly finds herself out of work.
When she receives a phone call from Susan Pickering, the manager of Woodfell House Nursing Home informing her, her grandmother Elle was there after a fall suffering a hip fracture, she is quite shocked as she had been estranged from her grandmother for many years.
When she was 9 years old Meg lived with Elle after her parents passed away, she grew up in a home with no love and the relationship between them was quite troublesome. Elle summons Meg back to Hunters Reach in the Adelaide Hills, feeling lost and vulnerable with nothing going on in her life she somberly obliges.
When Meg arrives, Elle informs her she is selling the family home and gives her instructions to pack up the contents, restore the house to its former condition and maintain the sweeping garden. Meg is overwhelmed but begins the laborious task, she hires Jake Lynch to help with the garden who knows more about her family than she thinks.
Her best friend and former neighbour Betty living on a farm close by arrives and offers to help. After being in an accident Phillip returns home injured and travels to Hunters Reach to support Meg. As she sorts through her grandmother’s belongings, she discovers hidden secrets of the past. Family mysteries slowly unravel, and the full story comes together.
Meg is a strong-willed and tenacious woman, for someone that grew up with no love and support she had the ability to still help others and form healthy and meaningful relationships. I enjoyed Betty’s character, her friendship never wavered, and she came through for Meg when needed and made a big difference when difficulties arose as did Jake and Phillip. Elle was mean and cold which will influence many negative reactions, she is a character the reader will immediately dislike, Meg was a gem putting up with her behaviour.
I live in Adelaide, so visions were very clear of the gorgeous landscapes and places mentioned, I loved how Kerry seamlessly incorporates real-life events such as the 2020 bushfires into the story, it added an extra layer of authenticity to the narrative.
The author writes in a flowing, smooth manner, with twists and turns along the way. One of the book’s best aspects is how past experiences in the characters’ lives influence current perspectives. The story is filled with heart-warming and heartbreaking moments of abandonment, struggles, grief, and joy. Throughout the story, the messages of hope and strength of the human spirit prevail.
Thank you, Beauty and Lace, and Penguin Australia Pty Ltd for the opportunity to read and review.
Author: Kerry McGinnis
ISBN: 9781761040634
Copy courtesy of publisher Penguin Australia Pty Ltd
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club Members are reading The Missing Girl by Kerry McGinnis. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
My love of books started at a very young age. My mum has always been a reader and encouraged me to read, buying me endless book from classic fairy tales advancing to the world of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Kathryn Kenny, Carolyn Keene, Francine Pascal. In my adult years the list of authors is endless and every room in my house is filled with books.
One of my favourite novels is Narnia which has always has a special place in my heart. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 1978 and when I was given this book to read it let me escape to another world where I felt like I was in the book with all the characters, it wasfun and exciting to escape from reality and eased the ups and downs of the disease at such a young age.
In books nothing is impossible and there is endless potential and hundreds of places to explore or being taken to places that are only made up from the authors’ great minds, the past and future to navigate, characters lives you step into taking you on an emotional rollercoaster ride or being scared out of your wits. I can experience things that I can’t in real life because they’re not possible or real. It challenges my perspective and mindset expanding my worldview.
I find joy, comfort and peace with books, many people may not get it, but I know bookworms like me truly understand. Reading makes my heart happy.
The Missing Girl is my first read by Australian author Kerry McGinnis and it won’t be my last.
Estranged from her bitter Grandmother Ellie, Meg Morrisey is summoned to Hunter’s Reach. The once extravagant property is now in need of major restoration.
Unemployed and living in Hahndorf, Meg decides to accept her Grandmother’s offer and dedicate her time to tidying up both the interior and exterior of the rural residence. With a miserable childhood, starved of love, Meg focuses on getting the job done as quickly as possible so the property can be sold and she can move on with her life.
Meg is a likeable vulnerable character. An only child, who despite having lost her caregivers at 10, and being placed in the hands of her bitter grandmother who wasted no time in packing her off to a city boarding school, she has turned into a remarkable young woman.
On return to Hunter’s Reach, Meg reunites with Betty, an elderly employee of her Grandmother’s who adored her as a child and still does. Regardless of her hardships, Meg has blossomed into a caring lady who has created her own path alongside her partner, Phillip.
Family drama, dysfunction, secrets, acceptance, and forgiveness are intertwined in this novel. A book full of hope and overcoming adversity capturing the beauty and challenges of the Australian landscape. Definitely worth reading.
Every now and then a novel comes your way that captures your attention from Page 1 right till the end. The Missing Girl by Kerry McGinnis is such a fabulous read.
The main character Meg is summoned back to the Adelaide Hills to her grand old family home called Hunters Reach by her not much liked grandmother who has raised her since her parents had died in an accident.
Meg is expected to clean the inside and outside of the home ready to be sold while her grandmother is recovering in hospital.
All the characters are all very endearing except the grandmother who you will love to dislike. Sometimes, I felt I was reading about my nanna at one stage so that was interesting.
Betty is a character that you will really warm too. Who wouldn’t want a Betty in their life? She was an elderly employee of Meg’s grandmother who generously gave love to Meg in her growing up years. Out of the kindness of her heart she helps Meg clean up the house for selling.
As I read, I found myself trying to guess the secrets that are buried in the past of Meg’s family. It was all such a fascinating read and a real page turner.
Absolutely loved this book and I have not read any of Kerry McGinnis’s books before so will have to rectify that.
I have a fascination and love of book covers and this one is eerily lovely to look at.
Thank you to Beauty & Lace and Penquin Random House Australia for sending this book to read. To Kerry McGinnis – your writing is superb and it’s obvious that you write from the heart and capture the Australian surrounds.
Every now and then a novel comes your way that captures your attention from Page 1 right till the end. The Missing Girl by Kerry McGinnis is such a fabulous read.
The main character Meg is summoned back to the Adelaide Hills to her grand old family home called Hunters Reach by her not much liked grandmother who has raised her since her parents had died in an accident.
Meg is expected to clean the inside and outside of the home ready to be sold while her grandmother is recovering in hospital.
All the characters are all very endearing except the grandmother who you will love to dislike. Sometimes, I felt I was reading about my nanna at one stage so that was interesting.
Betty is a character that you will really warm too. Who wouldn’t want a Betty in their life? She was an elderly employee of Meg’s grandmother who generously gave love to Meg in her growing up years. Out of the kindness of her heart she helps Meg clean up the house for selling.
As I read, I found myself trying to guess the secrets that are buried in the past of Meg’s family. It was all such a fascinating read and a real page turner.
Absolutely loved this book and I have not read any of Kerry McGinnis’s books before so will have to rectify that.
I have a fascination and love of book covers and this one is eerily lovely to look at.
Thank you to Beauty & Lace and Penquin Random House Australia for sending this book to read. To Kerry McGinnis – your writing is superb and it’s obvious that you write from the heart.
I loved this book from the first page.
I thought the characters were all people I could relate too and even the old grandmother reminded me of mine.
This was a book I couldn’t put down and read in one sitting.
Thank you for allowing me to read it.
I’m a huge Kerry Mcginnis fan and The Missing Girl definitely doesnt disappoint!
When Meg is summoned home by her estranged grandmother Elle, she wants to turn her down but her kind and caring nature makes it impossible for her to say no.
Her childhood was not a happy one, with many gaps in her family history, she finds returning to her Grandmothers house just brings more questions than answers.
As the book unfolds so do the lies told over the years with many secrets starting to reveal themselves, Meg determinedly unravels the past to find out a shocking truth.
This book will have you hooked from the first page!
Thank you to Penguin and Beauty and Lace for the chance to read and review The Missing Girl.
Having never read books by Kerry Mcginnis before I was pleasantly surprised when I read The Missing Girl.
Receiving an unexpected summons by her estranged grandmother a kind and caring Meg returns home. Faced with the task of packing up her grandmothers home Meg uncovers many startling secrets and faces some unexpected truths in the process.
I was so taken with this book I was reading it at every available opportunity. I can’t recommend this book and author enough. I will certainly be reading more of her books in future.
A huge thanks to Penguin and Beauty and Lace for this awesome opportunity to read and review Kerry Mcginnis ‘The Missing Girl’.
Thanks BeautyandLace and Penguin Random House Australia for the opportunity to read and review The Missing Girl a crime thriller written by Kerry McGinnis.
The Missing Girl is an intriguing story about Meg Morrissey an orphaned child who was raised by her grandmother. I really felt sad for Meg, through out her life she always felt unwanted, even by her own parents when they were alive. She had always felt in the way and often wondered why her parents had a child in the first place they clearly weren’t nurturing and only had eyes for each other.
It was no wonder that Meg fled the family home when she was old enough to leave and look after herself.
When Meg received a phone call from her ailing Grandmother and was summoned back to the family homestead to help settle affairs to sell the family house, it brought back the sad memories of her childhood.
During the process of clearing the house for sale she makes surprising discoveries about her family. Her Grandmother wasn’t keen to share too much information with Meg, but she was able discover some home truths from an old family friend Mrs Betty Roberts. Including the fact that her mother had a twin sister! There was never any mention of her Aunt Iris whilst growing up.
As the story unfolds, Meg finally discovers her past and the horrific secrets of her family and coverups to preserve the family name and reputation.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Missing Girl, it was suspenseful and had twists and turns that kept me captivated. I found that I really connected with Meg, I really sympathized with her, Meg’s sad up bringing and childhood was heartbreaking. I’m so glad she found out the truth in the end.
Thank you so much BeautyandLace for another fabulous read, I loved reading this book and I’m really keen to read more books written by Kerry McGinnis.
Thank you to Penguin and Beauty and Lace for the chance to read and review The Missing Girl.
This book had me totally inthralled from the first page, and I read it until the very early hours ogf the morning. I just could not put it down. The characters and their personalities beautifully come to life in words, and the descriptions of the main homestead, ‘Hunters Reach’, also wonderfully descriptive.
I throughly enjoyed the fact that Meg/Margaret, the main character, already had a solid loving relationship, and her partner played an important part in the story. Most stories focus on love lost and new ones found, so this was a refreshing change.
The story line covers many aspects of the goings on at ‘Hunters Reach’ over many decades, many of which were twisted and sinister. Family lies, betrayal and cover ups, make for a real page turner.
I highly recommend this fabulous story, set here in our very own Sth Australia, and will earnestly seek to read more stories from author Kerry McGinnis.
The Missing Girl was such an easy, enjoyable read.
I found it refreshing to not be based on a romance and enjoyed the mystery of the family, disappointed that the grandmother didn’t come round after all and actually be a nice person but of course not all stories can have a happy ending!