When her mother uncharacteristically fails to return her phone calls, 31-year old Nikki Eaton calls in to check up on her. She finds the house turned upside-down, and her mother lying dead, murdered, on the garage floor.
Single, sexually liberated and economically self-supporting, Nikki has never particularly thought of herself as a daughter. She learns to cope with the unexpected loss of her mother over the course of a tumultuous year of mourning that brings sorrow and even from an unexpected source, a nurturing love.
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[May 9, 2004. One of those aloof-seeming spring days; very sunny but not very warm]***
(Harper Perennial, 4 October 2005, bought from Amazon)
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I read this for 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenge. The category is 'a book with a family member term in the title'.***
I thought Mother Missing was a fantastic book. I loved it.
This is an incredibly sad book. When Nikki finds her mother's body it was heart-breaking. Her shock and pain was so real I had to avert my eyes.
Despite the sad subject matter, Mother, Missing is full of love and hope and possibility. It would have been to make this book tragic and full of rage and grief but JCO manages to avoid this.
I loved the way the novel explores the relationship between Nikki and her sister Claire, their differences, how they clash and spark off each other. Very well written.
Mother, Missing explores how Nikki and Claire and the people who knew their mother rebuild their lives after tragedy. I found it breath-taking.
