Book review: The Missing

Tim Gautreaux has pulled off "a rare feat", said Stephen Amidon in the Sunday Times: he has written "a rip-roaring adventure novel" imbued with "a true depth of feeling". The Missing tells the story of Sam Simoneaux, who, returning to New Orleans from the First World War, tries to settle down with a wife and a job as a security guard.

But when a little girl is abducted on his watch at a department store, he feels bound to help find her. Getting a job on a dance boat with her musician parents, he embarks on a dangerous quest up the Mississippi River and into its lawless hinterland.

This is a "beautifully written, enthralling saga", said James Urquhart in the Independent. Life aboard a 1920s Mississippi steamer is vividly recreated, with its jazz, dancing, and nightly fights. The novel is constructed like a piece of "exquisite machinery", said Alan Warner in the Guardian. The story is gripping; the dialogue is "gruff, sharp, often hilarious"; the colour is marvellous. The Missing is also a weighty "meditation on law and lawlessness, guilt and the hollowness of vengeance".

The Missing, by Tim Gautreaux, 384pp (Sceptre, £17.99) The Week Bookshop £16.19 (incl p&p) ·