Random Matters - Keith Lee Hickman

When eighteen-year-old Gilly Moon vanishes on her way to a science fair at her school, a series of strange and confusing events is set into motion. Her dad, Henry, springs into action, dropping everything to search for his daughter. His desire to find Gilly may be responsible for turning him into a juggernaut private investigator, but his tenacity is intensified by the fact that his daughter is not the first person in his family to vanish without a trace. His mother, Kelly, was also taken from him and his father when Henry was a young boy.

Although Kelly is never found, her case is closed when a serial rapist and murderer named Oliver Payne confesses to kidnapping and killing the young wife and mother forty years earlier. And even though the monster is serving a life sentence, what Henry learns about his daughter's disappearance causes him to wonder if Gilly's case is somehow related to his mother's. More digging causes Henry to question everything he ever believed about his family and his childhood when he discovers some astonishing long-kept secrets.

Just as the realities of the past start disrupting the progress of his investigation, a writer who is familiar with Kelly's disappearance contacts Henry, and she wants to meet. Reenergized by her call, Henry agrees, and they quickly begin to combine their resources and evidence in order to pursue Gilly's case together. Will that help him find Gilly before she suffers the same fate as her grandmother? Time will tell, but Henry knows he doesn't have much of that! Every second Gilly is missing could be her last.

As they push forward with their investigation, things get complicated and random people, places, and events become inexplicably intertwined. Inuendo, painful memories, and self-interests constantly come into play throughout this thrilling and suspenseful tale of the bad luck, or perhaps the intentional targeting, of one unfortunate and innocent family.