Book Review: ‘The Missing’ by Dave Maruszewski

The Missing is the third book by author Dave Maruszewski featuring protagonists Raven, Romda and Ravai. This is my first time reading one of Maruszewski’s books and, despite this being the third instalment in a series, I was surprised and pleased that I was easily able to follow along with the plot. This story works as both a continuation and a stand-alone.

In this medieval style world, our three protagonists are trusted knights who have been tasked by the King to investigate a number of disappearances in the town of Ashton. Their mission is complicated by the unusual townsfolk – who is acting suspiciously and who is merely excentric? And will they ever be able to find the missing people and save the town?

Aimed at teens and younger readers, Maruszewski makes a conscious effort to ensure his book is family friendly – with no bad language, lewd scenes, or gore. This doesn’t mean there isn’t action within the story but I feel the author finds a good balance in his fight scenes without leaning too heavily into violence. There is the occasional jump scare but again Maruszewski falls on the right side of creepy rather than pure horror. I like that the author has really taken the time to consider his audience whilst constructing the story.

At less than 120 pages, The Missing is a quick and manageable read. The story is fast-paced and the plot is continually moving forward. Rather than padding the story out with filler scenes, Maruszewski makes sure that every chapter is important. There are plenty of character interactions and I loved that there was a clear goal that our protagonists were working towards.

The Missing is essentially a detective story. Although Raven, Romda and Ravai are a team they each have their own ideas about how best to solve the case and find the missing townsfolk. These differences lead to minor disagreements within the group and we see the knights split up to search for clues. Each of the trio has a distinctive personality which helped me to distinguish the characters from each other. As this is a book for younger readers, I also liked the message/teaching moment of learning to work together rather than against each other to solve a problem – as is shown in the story’s conclusion.

The town is filled with lots of different characters, such as: the Mayor, Young Rick, Rollie, and Sherriff Braun, which I’m sure will entertain lots of readers. However for me personally there was a few too many characters to keep track of and unfortunately I kept finding myself being pulled out the story as I had to remind myself of who was who amongst the townsfolk.

Even though I know this was a deliberate choice by the author, I struggled with the lack of description given to the characters. I understand and actually really like the author’s sentiment of not describing the physical features of his characters to allow readers to imagine themselves, or someone who looks like them, in the role. However by not describing any aspect of the characters, not even their clothes or weapons, I found it difficult to picture the characters in my head. Similarly I felt that the town of Ashton was also lacking in those descriptive details which would have helped to me visualise what was happening whilst I was reading.

I had mixed feelings when reading The Missing but I am also aware that I do not fall into the intended audience for this book. In my view the story has both its strengths and weaknesses but I sincerely hope Maruszewski is able to continue his series for a long time.

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This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery in February 2025.

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