Missing You review: a new mystery from Harlan Coben

Missing You stars Rosalind Eleazar as DI Kat Donovan, a missing persons detective in the UK. Her own fiancé, who has been missing for 11 years, turns up unexpectedly on a dating app just as Kat is looking for a missing man who used the same dating app.

Missing You interweaves several stories into the mystery, as is common with series based on books by Harlan Coben. There are current cases Kat is investigating. One is for a persistent young man named Brendan (Oscar Kennedy) who is looking for his mother. Kat’s partners on the police force include Charlie (Charlie Hamblett) and Nia (Catherine Ayers). Her boss is Richard Armitage as Stagger.

Her missing fiancé (Ashley Walters) left her 11 years ago just as her father, also a cop, was killed. The man convicted of killing her dad is dying in prison and Kat is determined to find out why he did it. There is more to the story than she knew and it might have something to do with her missing fiancé. She’s determined to find him and to talk to the dying man in prison.

There’s a seemingly unrelated plot line involving a dog breeder named Titus (a creepy Steve Pemberton). Of course, in a mystery story, nothing is ever unrelated, is it?

Kat has a good support system in her personal life. Her best friends are Stacey (Jessica Plummer) and Aqua (Mary Malone). Stacey is a private investigator with ways of collecting information that can be helpful to Kat. Aqua is a trans woman, played by a trans actor, who is an integral part of the story and not just an LGBTQ token. Kat’s mother and aunts are all there for her. All these people love her, but do they tell her the truth? She’s starting to wonder.

Rosalind Eleazer is terrific in this as the determined and tough Kat. Coben regular Richard Armitage is also excellent. Steve Pemberton can apparently do anything.

There are only 5 episodes in this limited series. It still manages to contain some twists and turns and several unexpected surprises at the end that are heartbreaking but satisfying.

With a woman as the main character, I hoped for women in directing slots, but alas, it was only men. You can see the entire series on Netflix.