Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired to find four-year-old Amanda McCready, abducted from her home without leaving a trace The case is rife with oddities Amanda's indifferent mother, a paedophilic couple and a shadowy police unit When a second child goes missing, they face a sensationalising local media and a faceless power determined to obstruct their efforts They discover that those who go looking for the missing may not come back alive