The Moonlight Vanishing by Maple Quinn
A missing man. A loyal dog. And a small town where sweetness hides its sharpest secrets.
Fifty-year-old Molly McBeal is only passing through Sunflower Falls, Kansas on her way to a new life in Cape Cod when the Harvest Moon Festival takes a troubling turn—an elderly man with dementia and his little Westie vanish into the night. The town shrugs it off as typical wandering. Molly’s new companion, Star—an intuitive Mini Aussiedoodle with eyes that miss nothing—disagrees.
Molly has spent decades reading people’s microexpressions, and the quiver in the daughter’s voice, the defensiveness of the town’s security chief, and the evasiveness of a jittery carnival worker all whisper the same thing: something is wrong. Very wrong.
As Molly and Star follow overlooked trails—one made of human emotion, the other of canine instinct—they uncover motives no one wants unearthed: a caregiver at her breaking point, a festival vendor with secrets woven through his past, and a town too used to looking the other way.
When evidence starts to disappear and tempers flare, Molly realizes this mystery isn’t waiting for a detective.
It’s waiting for her—before someone’s silence becomes permanent.
“As an author, I’m always fascinated by how much we reveal without saying a word, so Molly’s talent for reading micro-expressions is absolutely fascinating. Teamed up with Star—a very clever Mini Aussiedoodle—to find a missing neighbor make this a heartfelt and tense page-turner!”
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