by Catherine Cowles

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Quick Take: Loved! A super engaging story that has a little bit of everything—crime, romance, tragedy, humor. It also combines one of my favorite romance tropes—enemies to lovers—with a good mystery.

Favorite Quotes: “Be safe, Chaos. It’s going to piss me the hell off if you end up dead.” (212)

“If I break my neck pulling this ridiculous stunt, I’m going to haunt your ass.” (266)

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I worried this meant that the big reveal might be a let down with a completely left-field perpetrator, but it wasn’t. The answer made sense in the world of the novel and was all the more satisfying since I couldn’t guess it.

Brief synopsis: Losing her twin sister compels Ridley Sawyer to become a nomadic true-crime podcaster, driving her camper van around the country in the hopes of helping solve cold cases that are similar to her sister’s disappearance—and that she suspects could be connected. When she arrives in Shady Cove for her next assignment, she’s met with resistance from the small, tight-knit community, and her biggest detractor is the town’s smoking hot sheriff, Colter Brooks.

With the growing popularity of true crime in recent years and the heated debate around its ethics, I loved the way the book handled this contentious topic with such care, openness, and thoughtfulness. In short, there’s a right way to do true crime that can bring communities together, find justice for victims and their families, and potentially pave the way for healing. There’s also a wrong way to do true crime, which exploits these tragedies for personal and financial gain and in the process, dehumanizes victims and their families while forcing them to relive the worst moments of their lives.

In All the Missing Pieces, the community of Shady Cove is suspicious that Ridley falls into the latter category, that she’s only digging into the town’s painful history to get more followers for her podcast and boost her own popularity. But one by one, they see how passionate Ridley is about justice, and that the purpose of her podcast is to garner enough interest in cold cases to uncover new, previously missed details that could be the key to solving them. In doing so, Ridley hopes to give families closure and stop the perpetrators of these crimes from hurting anyone else. The community bands together behind her, especially when they learn that Ridley’s own sister was kidnapped and never found. The book nearly had me in tears several times as Ridley confronted her trauma and helped Colt do the same.

The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars is because I often found the language lacking. While there were some good quips throughout, the novel had a lot of sticky sentences the editor in me itched to simplify. There were also several chapters that ended with hokey and maddening cliff hangers. I’m not against cliff hangers in general, only when they’re used to trick the audience into thinking something terrible is about to happen (e.g. Ridley thinks someone is hiding in her closet waiting to attack her, but turns out it was just her cat).

My last main critique is that some of the sex scenes felt logistically absurd (they’re standing in the middle of a room and he’s holding her with one arm, really?). But I can hardly hold it against Cowles when this is a recurring issue I see in many romance books, and the scenes were still sexy and fun.

Overall though, All the Missing Pieces tells a super engaging story that manages to be both incredibly moving and a lot of fun. I’m definitely interested in reading more by Cowles.

I’m really hoping for a spinoff with two of the secondary characters (I won’t say who to avoid any spoilers). And I think there’s a good chance we’ll get one. Cowles sets it up perfectly.