Last Seen Leaving

Last Seen Leaving, a YA mystery and coming of age story, by Caleb Roehrig will have you guessing until the very end (well, sort of).

The story is about Flynn who returns home from school one day to find two Policemen in his living room. It turns out that Flynn’s girlfriend January is missing and so they naturally want to speak to him first. Flynn is instantly nervous and it is obvious that there is something that he is hiding from them in his story about the last night that he saw January. But what could it be? (You actually find out exactly what it is pretty quickly but I don’t want to give anything away!)

There is instantly a media frenzy surrounding January’s home that she lives in with her Mother and her Step-Father who is a rich politician running for Congress. Flynn is just as perplexed about January’s whereabouts as everyone else and decides to do whatever he can to solve the case – even if that means taking it into his own hands without the Police.

Quickly he discovers that her friends are telling stories that don’t add up. Flynn starts to suspect everyone around him for being responsible for her disappearance as he discovers new things about January that go against everything that he thought he knew about her. All eyes are on Flynn—as January’s boyfriend, he must know something. But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January’s disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself.

In some ways this novel is a little bit transparent. Flynn is oblivious to some of the clues that are right in front of his face and overly-critical of others. I will say however that despite its flaws this novel has many twists and turns until the very end.