Book review - The Lovely and the Lost

Title: The Lovely and the Lost
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke
                      Too Shattered for Mending by Peter Brown Hoffmeister
Rating:

a bit of a mixed bag

Summary (provided by publisher):  Kira Bennett's earliest memories are of living alone and wild in the woods. She has no idea how long she was on her own or what she had to do to survive, but she remembers the moment that Cady Bennett and one of her search-and-rescue dogs found her. Adopted into the Bennett family, Kira still struggles with human interaction years later, but she excels at the family business: search-and-rescue. Together with Cady's son, Jude, and their neighbor, Free, Kira works alongside Cady to train the world's most elite search-and-rescue dogs. Someday, all three teenagers hope to put their skills to use, finding the lost and bringing them home.
But when Cady's estranged father, the enigmatic Bales Bennett, tracks his daughter down and asks for her help in locating a missing child-one of several visitors who has disappeared in the Sierra Glades National Park in the past twelve months-the teens find themselves on the frontlines sooner than they could have ever expected. As the search through 750,000 acres of unbridled wilderness intensifies, Kira becomes obsessed with finding the missing child. She knows all too well what it's like to be lost in the wilderness, fighting for survival, alone.
But this case isn't simple. There is more afoot than a single, missing girl, and Kira's memories threaten to overwhelm her at every turn. As the danger mounts and long-held family secrets come to light, Kira is forced to question everything she thought she knew about her adopted family, her true nature, and her past.


My opinion: In a book like this one, where minors investigate a mystery, it's important to draw careful lines. Barnes handles this carefully. The teens are actively involved in searching for the missing child. As soon as it becomes clear that a crime has been committed, though, the teens are blocked from the investigation. They can do search and rescue because they are trained. They cannot interfere with the police. And the teens themselves are careful to stay out of the way of the police. Sure, they keep investigating but their investigation takes the form that any citizen could do. They talk to people, hunt through library records. Their training simply gives them different insight than other people. The mystery itself is thinly evidenced, the suspects vague at best. Compelling enough for a single read.

More information: The Lovely and the Lost releases May 7.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.