Missing Sam A novel

Ali's wife Sam disappears the morning after they have a bitter late-night argument, and she veers from concern to fear that Sam has left her. Restrained by humiliation and her erroneous belief that the police require a 48-hour waiting period, Ali kicks off a series of damaging mistakes by delaying reporting Sam's disappearance. She reluctantly tells detectives about their fight but deletes their heated texts and fumbles media interviews. Meanwhile, Sam's disappearance stretches into weeks as the leads dry up, and public speculation about Ali's suspicious behavior swells. When Ali is shunned and abused in the artsy Cleveland Heights neighborhood she'd considered a cocoon, her estranged father provides unexpected comfort. Months later, Ali's prayers are answered when Sam, battered and blindfolded, is dumped near their home. But Sam's abductor remains at large. Umrigar explores the ripple effect of violent crime in gut-wrenching detail, capturing the callous intrusions Ali and Sam suffered, the space for redemption it created in their family relationships, and their determined devotion to each other. Healing from the abduction and lifelong patterns of abuse and discrimination, Sam and Ali find strength in corners of their lives that they'd written off. Gritty hope and redemption glimmer throughout this must-read literary crime story.

An ill-timed fall during a morning run shatters the lives of English professor Sam O'Malley and her wife, Ali Mirza, in this engrossing thriller from bestseller Umrigar (The Museum of Failures) that doubles as a moving meditation on otherness. Sam and Ali have always felt comfortable in their leafy, upscale suburb--the so-called "People's Republic of Cleveland Heights"--but when Sam heads out for an early-morning run and never returns, it becomes painfully clear to Ali just how thin her neighbors' veneer of tolerance is. Blood traces along Sam's running route lead detectives to conclude that she was abducted after falling to the ground, but Sam's narcissistic graduate student Candace Brickman fans speculation that Ali--a Muslim and second-generation Indian American--might be responsible for Sam's disappearance. As days turn into weeks, clients of Ali's interior design business cancel projects, racist trolls attack her online, and someone puts a bag of human feces on the couple's doorstep. Though the hunt for Sam propels the narrative, Umrigar never loses sight of the bigger picture, including the conflicting pulls of family, faith, sexuality, and culture that shape her characters. This vivid and deeply felt narrative should please the author's fans and win her new ones. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman. (Jan.)