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The Missing
A landscape to die for ...
The next compelling mystery set in the wild outback town of Kalgoorlie, from the bestselling author of The Prospect
'This land is millions of years old and has held secrets that we are able to uncover to this very day, yet the same land seems to have swallowed Max without a trace.'
In the middle of Missing Persons Week, teenager Max Galbraith disappears after a party at the two-up ring on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie. With hundred-year-old mine shafts hidden in the area, no one can sure whether he become lost while he was under the influence of drugs or if something more sinister has happened.
Lily Carter, a talkshow radio host, receives information about Brendan Cook, another Kalgoorlie teenager who disappeared in similar circumstances the year before. But the police didn't launch a full-scale search for Brendan. Why not?
Enter Detective Angie Sullivan, new to Kalgoorlie and yet to understand how the town works. With no clear links between the two cases, and Lily accusing the police of incompetence, the town is tipped into uproar. What secrets are hiding out there in the bush? And can Angie discover them before any more kids go missing?
Praise for The Prospect:
'Superb writing and storytelling' The Australian
Praise for Fleur
'McDonald brings all her passion for the land to her rural suspense' Australian Women's Weekly
'Fleur McDonald is a master of the rural suspense novel, her characters and storyline crackle with authenticity' Family Circle
'This land is millions of years old and has held secrets that we are able to uncover to this very day, yet the same land seems to have swallowed Max without a trace.'
In the middle of Missing Persons Week, teenager Max Galbraith disappears after a party at the two-up ring on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie. With hundred-year-old mine shafts hidden in the area, no one can sure whether he become lost while he was under the influence of drugs or if something more sinister has happened.
Lily Carter, a talkshow radio host, receives information about Brendan Cook, another Kalgoorlie teenager who disappeared in similar circumstances the year before. But the police didn't launch a full-scale search for Brendan. Why not?
Enter Detective Angie Sullivan, new to Kalgoorlie and yet to understand how the town works. With no clear links between the two cases, and Lily accusing the police of incompetence, the town is tipped into uproar. What secrets are hiding out there in the bush? And can Angie discover them before any more kids go missing?
Praise for The Prospect:
'Superb writing and storytelling' The Australian
Praise for Fleur
'McDonald brings all her passion for the land to her rural suspense' Australian Women's Weekly
'Fleur McDonald is a master of the rural suspense novel, her characters and storyline crackle with authenticity' Family Circle
332 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2025
62 people want to read
About the author
Fleur McDonald
45 books524 followersAfter growing up on a farm near Orroroo in South Australia, Fleur McDonald’s first job was jillarooing in the outback. She has been involved in agriculture all her life, including helping manage a 8000-acre station for twenty years. Today Fleur and her energetic kelpie, Jack, live in Esperance, Western Australia,
Fleur is the author of 23 bestselling novels and two children's books.
Fleur chats about her daily writing life on her blog http://fleurmcdonald.com,
Facebook - Fleur McDonald Author
Instagram @fleurmcdonald
Tiktok @fleurmcdonaldauthor
Fleur is the author of 23 bestselling novels and two children's books.
Fleur chats about her daily writing life on her blog http://fleurmcdonald.com,
Facebook - Fleur McDonald Author
Instagram @fleurmcdonald
Tiktok @fleurmcdonaldauthor
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 9, 2025
Brilliant!
Book Two in the series and what a writer. Despite the blurb sounding fairly familiar- missing teen, family drama, but in an outback Australian town…there really is nothing generic about this read.
Excellent flow, loved the characters and really great curve balls.
Book Two in the series and what a writer. Despite the blurb sounding fairly familiar- missing teen, family drama, but in an outback Australian town…there really is nothing generic about this read.
Excellent flow, loved the characters and really great curve balls.
October 29, 2025
Though The Prospect launched Fiona McDonald’s new rural crime fiction series set in Kalgoorlie, it is The Missing that completes the author’s transition away from her popular Dave Burrows series.
The Missing introduces Detective Angie Sullivan, new to the outback town and eager for the opportunity to bolster her goal of promotion. She’s already having a rough morning though when a local radio host, Lily Carter, accuses the Kalgoorlie police department of failing to properly investigate the disappearance of a 16 year old foster kid almost a year ago. Angie is furious with the public ambush and intends to follow up, but she’s distracted when another child is reported missing. Max Galbraith, also 16, hasn’t been home for twenty four hours. Last seen on the outskirts of town before wandering away from a drug fuelled party, Angie expects he’ll be found quickly, even if he’s taken a tumble into one of the many abandoned mineshafts that litter the area. But when no trace of Max is found, a closer look will uncover a shocking secret that links the two boys.
The third person narrative in The Missing shifts between the perspectives of Angie, Lily, Detective Jack Higgins (whom readers might recognise from the Dave Burrows series or The Prospect) Max, the missing boy, and Smurf, a grizzled Vietnam War vet. This allows McDonald to provide insight both the personal lives of her characters and their connection to the case. I quickly grew to like Angie who is a self-assured, focused detective, and I think it’s possible that she will become the lead in this new (as yet unnamed) series, even if Jack, who is present but not front and centre in The Missing, remains in Kalgoorlie. Lily is not too dissimilar to Angie, though she has a somewhat haughty manner, and both women are in the midst of a relationship breakdown. Smurf, who lives with his dog in a hut in the middle of nowhere, meanwhile gives the story a burst of strong outback Australia colour.
I appreciated the insight into the characters but I was gripped by the turns in the case and its climactic ending. The story unfolds at a fast pace and McDonald makes good use of red herrings to both move the investigation forward and sustain the tension in the plot. She does provide enough clues for the reader to guess at Max’s fate, even if only in hindsight.
I’m a little familiar with the town of Kalgoorlie having grown up in Western Australia and I think McDonald describes the region with authenticity. It’s hot, remote and a bit wild thanks to its roots in an itinerant population of miners and tourists. A six hour drive inland from the nearest city, it’s surrounded by vast areas of nothing but scrubland and red sand.
With The Missing I think McDonald’s desire to rebrand herself as a crime writer has been eminently successful. This is a dynamic and compelling read that should satisfy old fans and new readers alike, and I’m looking forward to The Witness in early 2026.
The Missing introduces Detective Angie Sullivan, new to the outback town and eager for the opportunity to bolster her goal of promotion. She’s already having a rough morning though when a local radio host, Lily Carter, accuses the Kalgoorlie police department of failing to properly investigate the disappearance of a 16 year old foster kid almost a year ago. Angie is furious with the public ambush and intends to follow up, but she’s distracted when another child is reported missing. Max Galbraith, also 16, hasn’t been home for twenty four hours. Last seen on the outskirts of town before wandering away from a drug fuelled party, Angie expects he’ll be found quickly, even if he’s taken a tumble into one of the many abandoned mineshafts that litter the area. But when no trace of Max is found, a closer look will uncover a shocking secret that links the two boys.
The third person narrative in The Missing shifts between the perspectives of Angie, Lily, Detective Jack Higgins (whom readers might recognise from the Dave Burrows series or The Prospect) Max, the missing boy, and Smurf, a grizzled Vietnam War vet. This allows McDonald to provide insight both the personal lives of her characters and their connection to the case. I quickly grew to like Angie who is a self-assured, focused detective, and I think it’s possible that she will become the lead in this new (as yet unnamed) series, even if Jack, who is present but not front and centre in The Missing, remains in Kalgoorlie. Lily is not too dissimilar to Angie, though she has a somewhat haughty manner, and both women are in the midst of a relationship breakdown. Smurf, who lives with his dog in a hut in the middle of nowhere, meanwhile gives the story a burst of strong outback Australia colour.
I appreciated the insight into the characters but I was gripped by the turns in the case and its climactic ending. The story unfolds at a fast pace and McDonald makes good use of red herrings to both move the investigation forward and sustain the tension in the plot. She does provide enough clues for the reader to guess at Max’s fate, even if only in hindsight.
I’m a little familiar with the town of Kalgoorlie having grown up in Western Australia and I think McDonald describes the region with authenticity. It’s hot, remote and a bit wild thanks to its roots in an itinerant population of miners and tourists. A six hour drive inland from the nearest city, it’s surrounded by vast areas of nothing but scrubland and red sand.
With The Missing I think McDonald’s desire to rebrand herself as a crime writer has been eminently successful. This is a dynamic and compelling read that should satisfy old fans and new readers alike, and I’m looking forward to The Witness in early 2026.
November 11, 2025
Once again this book crabs you from first page.
This author doesn’t disappoint with her books and they leave in hanging for next one, plus little of something from one before, and so Australian you can relate. Look forward to next one.
This author doesn’t disappoint with her books and they leave in hanging for next one, plus little of something from one before, and so Australian you can relate. Look forward to next one.
November 12, 2025
The Missing is Fleur McDonald’s second book after leaving behind her Detective Dave Burrows series. I might have still been suffering under the shock of loosing Dave when the first one came out, but now I was ready to make a new friend. And I am not saying that I didn’t like The Prospect but I only had “found” Dave a year ago and binge read the entire series (23 books) within a year, so you can maybe understand that I was totally engrossed and not entirely ready to say goodbye to him.
But now I am and I really liked Detective Angie Sullivan. She is new in the Aussie Mining Town of Kalgoorlie where a teenager has gone missing. Actually it’s not the first missing teen and there might be a link to their disappearances. Has the boy fallen in one of the countless abandoned mineshafts or is something more sinister going on? I really liked investigating with Detective Angie Sullivan and also that there is still a link to the old series but hope that she will be the new lead of this series. In terms of the mystery, I figured out a key part of the story early on but not how the complete picture would fit together which always is a bonus as it makes me feel smart ☺️ but I also still having the element of surprise at the end. I am definitely looking forward to the third one!
But now I am and I really liked Detective Angie Sullivan. She is new in the Aussie Mining Town of Kalgoorlie where a teenager has gone missing. Actually it’s not the first missing teen and there might be a link to their disappearances. Has the boy fallen in one of the countless abandoned mineshafts or is something more sinister going on? I really liked investigating with Detective Angie Sullivan and also that there is still a link to the old series but hope that she will be the new lead of this series. In terms of the mystery, I figured out a key part of the story early on but not how the complete picture would fit together which always is a bonus as it makes me feel smart ☺️ but I also still having the element of surprise at the end. I am definitely looking forward to the third one!
November 7, 2025
Amazing
November 7, 2025
Easy read, fast paced. - totally unbelievable- A great read.
November 10, 2025
I lived the Kalgoorlie setting, the varying perspectives and the unsettling mystery.
This one had me hooked from the prologue right through to the climactic ending.
4.5 stars (rounded up)
This one had me hooked from the prologue right through to the climactic ending.
4.5 stars (rounded up)
November 11, 2025
Was a great read very fast passing to the end . I have always enjoyed Fleur McDonalds books ,the missing did not disappoint . Love Jack in this book . Smurf and Assassin were a bonus .
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews