Review: Something Missing by Matthew Dicks (TSS)
Something Missing
by Matthew Dicks
For some reason, I just love the cover of this book. It is so simple, with bright colors and a retro font. Plus, the fact that the thief is stealing one of the letters in the title cracks me up. If I were judging the book by the cover, it’d totally be a winner.
Martin’s on an interesting career path. He’s an obsessive-compulsive thief who steals food, toiletries, and other items (usually mundane) but with a catch: he never takes items his ‘clients’ will notice missing. So a fancy stereo or stunning diamond necklace? Out. Slightly wilted celery, toilet paper, and bottles of bleach? In. To maximize his success, he carefully cases his clients for weeks before adding them to his regular rotation, and at the first indication that they may be growing suspicious he ceases all visitations. To protect himself, he has a self-imposed list of rules and regulations that he refuses to break - but one day, he makes an error while working in the home of one of his best clients. Not wishing to terminate their ‘relationship’ just yet, Martin scrambles to repair the mistake, and in the process performs a good deed, which makes him feel pretty swell. Soon he is acting as a sort of guardian angel to his clients, and when he accidentally uncovers a horrible plot against one of his families, he may be the only one who can save his client’s life…
Martin has the potential to be unbearably creepy. After all, he’s a thief, living off of other peoples’ hard-earned money! But he’s not. Even as he steals from innocent people, one can’t help but warm up to Martin as he rummages through refrigerators and reads clients’ diaries. He’s genuinely fond of his clients. The absence of “real” friends in his life makes this affection all the more endearing. He is extremely methodical and obsessive-compulsive, and at times his dedication to his routines can be dry reading and irritating. But if you could make it through Mark Haddon’s A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, you should be able to handle Martin.
I found the book to be very quirky and very funny. I breezed through it pretty quickly; it’s about average length, but a very fast, easy read. A good summer novel when you need a laugh by the poolside or amusement on an airplane.
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