CATCH YOU LATER A novel

JESSICA STRAWSER

Book - 2024

If Lark and Mikki didn't have each other, they'd have nothing in this miserable town. So the best friends stick together, working night shift at the highway travel stop, going nowhere fast. Until a stranger drops in, heading for Florida, and Mikki impulsively leaves with him, never to be seen again. Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki's lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. People have almost stopped blaming Lark for Mikki's disappearance, and she's engaged to the nicest guy on highway patrol. But when the stranger who drove off with Mikki reappears looking for her, nobody knows what to believe. As the search reignites,... Lark fights to find out whether Mikki is really missing or doesn't want to be found. But piecing together the chain of events set into motion that fateful night could threaten everything--and everyone--Lark has left. --

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Review by Booklist Review

It's 2016 in the sleepy town of Becksville, Ohio. Mikki and Lark have been friends since childhood. Both work in the Travel Stop, a highway rest stop for long-distance drivers. Mikki's mother sabotaged her daughter's future when she spent Mikki's college fund on opioids, and Lark is trapped by a new pregnancy. When a stranger, Chris, stops and strikes up a conversation with Mikki, he impulsively asks her to accompany him to his sister's wedding in Florida. She decides to take the risk, but she never returns. The story then flashes forward to 2024, when Lark is caring for her daughter as well as Mikki's grandmother. After years of searching, Lark has come to terms with Mikki's fate--or so she thinks. Chris visits the Travel Stop again, looking for Mikki--he never realized that she had gone missing. As Lark pushes to reopen the case, Mikki's perspective in 2016 is revealed as well. Strawser increases tension by telling both stories propulsively, leaving readers hanging from one chapter to the next. The setting plays a significant role; it's easy to picture the hopelessness of rural Ohio, especially juxtaposed with the luxury of Mikki's trip to Florida. Readers will flock to this fresh take on the missing-girl trope.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.