Some secrets remain in the dark because we turn off the lights and lock the door; others stay dark until someone finds the switch and flips the lights back on. Missing Molly by Natalie Barelli was waiting for Jacob Whitelaw to flip that switch; and when he does, the light is blinding!
Rachel Holloway has just returned from holiday to a somber office atmosphere: the South Hackney Herald is bleeding money and is at risk of being sold off. The team’s Hail Mary is a true-crime podcast, and former BBC producer Jacob Whitelaw pitches the one case guaranteed to gain listeners – Molly Forster. Little Molly vanished twelve years ago after her family was slaughtered, while it was believed she was murdered and buried in the woods, her body was never found. She remains to be one of the most famous missing-persons cases the country has ever experienced. Jacob and investigative journalist Vivian dive in head first while Rachel continues to disparage the whole direction. Then she volunteers to help with research and it’s darker and deeper than anyone expected. Her boyfriend Matt sits on the sidelines watching with concern, terrified she’s headed toward another breakdown similar to the one that followed the birth of their daughter Gracie. But when tragedy strikes the town of Whitbrook a second time, Rachel becomes certain the police locked up the wrong man – and that certainty could cost her far more than just her job.
Barelli builds an expansive cast and refuses to waste a single body. Nobody’s here just to fill a chair. Rachel is the beating, anxious heart of it all – childhood trauma bottled tight, a mind that latches onto a story and won’t let go until Matt reaches for the word “obsessed.” Jacob has a past he’d rather leave dead, and Rachel’s digging drags it back into daylight; luckily she pulls him from the fire before it scorches his reputation. He can smell a story a mile off – unless it’s sitting right under his nose. Vivian isn’t a headliner, but her one crucial stretch is the hinge the whole middle swings on; without it, the momentum would sag. Matt is patient and loving, forgiving because love asks him to, but even the softest person owns a breaking point. Rachel’s just might be his, too. Barelli writes them raw and human, quirks and flaws intact.
Pacing runs steady and true. The story sinks you into Rachel’s life – past and present meshed together – and you stay for the juicy parts once compassion has you hooked. Chapters slide into one another so smoothly that “one more” turns into three, and lights-out keeps getting pushed back. My one honest nitpick: a few reveals land too early. Barelli plants hints beautifully and Rachel makes a wonderfully unreliable guide, so I wanted room to reach some of those conclusions myself instead of being handed them straight. Still, the atmosphere is thick and the dread patient, and that early-reveal choice never derails what she’s built.
Overall, Missing Molly is a sharp, satisfying read with a genuinely fresh spin on how a story gets told – and it sticks the landing. Currently available on Kindle and set for release in paperback on October 20, 2026, it sits comfortably in the psychological-thriller aisle for readers who don’t need fireworks on page one. If you’d rather a slow-burn fuse that smolders toward one final, gut-dropping twist, this one belongs on your nightstand.
I’d like to thank Natalie Barelli and NetGalley for the Alpha/Beta/ARC opportunity for Missing Molly. As always, all opinions and reviews are of my own volition – Karen Brooks aka The Tx Lit Chic. I have not been promised any compensation, current or future, by the author or publisher for a fair and honest review of Missing Molly.
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