As she read the first several paragraphs of The Missing Au Pair on her Kindle, Maggie felt a frisson of delight. The author, Carrie Rubin, was quickly dropping hints that Kelly, a not-missing au pair, had a secret. No languid strolls around Paris for this reader yet. There would be time enough for that. First, Rubin had set the scene and offered Maggie the titillation of a mystery.
We are in 1980s Paris, Maggie thought, taking as clues the soundtrack of Prince’s Purple Rain, Kelly’s Walkman, and her “dark, permed hair.” Later in the novel, she would snort at the colorful costumes of Kelly and her friend Wayne whose naturally curly hair was “gelled […] to Duran Duran perfection.” She remembered that time very well, a time when she and her cousins Mary and Melissa all had big hair and just as big shoulder pads sewn into their blouses and blazers. They could have tried out for their high school football team with those shoulder pads.
She had started reading in the morning, a cup of tea beside her, herself curled into the corner of her couch. Hours later, she startled when a table lamp clicked on. During those hours, she had shadowed Kelly while she walked the streets of Paris and explored the catacombs looking for the missing au pair Erin.
Maggie had been engrossed in this dark cozy mystery novel, a story of a young woman gone missing and another young woman determined to find her. Kelly had known Erin from language school. They hadn’t been friends, but Kelly harbored a grief that needed to be acted upon. When she lived in America, her own best friend Nina had gone missing. Eventually Nina’s dead body was found. She had been murdered, and Kelly felt that she should have done more to try and find Nina, to save her.
Maggie thought she understood Kelly’s desire to make amends by finding Erin. And she understood Kelly’s desire to escape a depressing and oppressive home where she was treated as an indentured servant by her brother and mother. But her determination put her at risk of losing her own job as an au pair and also put her in danger. Kelly was hard-headed but naive, not at all prepared to learn what might have happened to Erin.
Maggie closed the Kindle and mused about the darkness of this otherwise cozy mystery. She was grateful that Rubin left much to the reader’s imagination. No gore, but just the idea that people were being tortured was enough to make Maggie’s mind flood with news stories about similar crimes.
Maggie liked how Rubin juxtaposed the beauty of Paris, its streets, parks, and grand architecture, with the dark cruelty happening underneath its streets. She liked learning about the catacombs and what it was like being an au pair in Paris in the 1980s. She really liked Kelly and Wayne. She liked the ending which was surprising but satisfying in many ways. And, she thought, her cousins would like the novel too. Time to share.
Thank you for reading this different kind of book review. I hope it has sparked your interest in getting a copy of The Missing Au Pair for yourself … or a friend.
The Missing Au Pair is available in print, ebook and audio formats at Amazon.
Here’s your reward for reading!
19 responses to “A Different Kind of Book Review: The Missing Au Pair by Carrie Rubin”
Well, this sounds good. After Carrie disappeared from social media, I stopped reading her books because there was nothing to remind me. Did she ever finish her doctor series? I need to go check out her books. Thanks for this. Great review Marie!
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Thank you! Carrie has me on an email list, maybe from when she had her blog. I’ll forward it to you. It’s how I found out about her latest novel.
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Thanks so much for sending it, Marie! I have missed Carrie!
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I greatly enjoyed your creative book review! The Missing Au Pair sounds like a compelling mystery.
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Thank you, Liz! Indeed, I was guessing who were the criminals up until the very end, and I had guessed wrong. I enjoy mysteries like that, like playing a game 🙂
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You’re welcome, Marie! As many mysteries as I’ve read over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to guess the killer.
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Definitely different. Now I’m imagining Marie imagining Maggie reading about Kelly. . . 😊
Raji! So adorable. My cats do that, too.
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Thank you, Merril. I’m playing around with “awakening” these characters that I had created so long ago–Maggie, Melissa, and Mary. They are my “comfort characters” 🙂
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You’re welcome, Marie!
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Well done, Marie! I’ve liked all of Carrie’s books that I’ve read.
Give Raj a kiss for me. 💙
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Thank you, Jennifer! Raji will enjoy the kiss 🩷
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That is a stunning cover! And what a fun review (as usual), Marie!
Congrats to Carrie.
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Thank you! Yes, it’s a great cover.
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I like the title of your blog, Maria: “1 Write Way.” It reminds me of “It’s my way or the highway”, in other words, “Always Write.” My husband named my blog because he says I’m always right. I like your different style of book review. It sounds like a good book. :)
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Thank you, Marsha! When I started my blog, I was also thinking of becoming a freelance editor and “1 Write Way” seemed to be a good name for a business. There’s so many positive interpretations of that name that, although I’m now retired, I can’t let go of it. Good on your husband for giving your blog such an apt name!
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So are you a freelance editor, or you retired from that? I retired to my blog rather than from it. :)
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No, I never developed a business. Instead I worked as a data analyst (more or less) in public health until I retired. I would like to spend more time on my blog but since I retired, I’ve become busy with knitting :-)
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Sounds interesting! I will make a note to check it out. Thanks for your thoughts, Marie.This sentence from your following post resonated with me today, as I used writing in a similar way when I was younger.
Writing used to be a way to hide from a world that frightened and confused me.
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Thank you! I think these days, instead of using writing to “hide from a world that frightened and confused me,” I use it to make sense (if possible) of that (this) world.
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