Clarice Beech is drawn into mystery when a woman named Louise implores her for assistance in locating her son, Guy, who recently failed to return home from a trip. Clarice agrees to look after Guy's dog, Susie (who recently turned up with a mysterious gash on her leg), while she investigates Guy's business associates, hoping to unearth clues to his whereabouts. Before long, she begins to suspect that Guy may have been murdered. The Man Who Vanished and the Dog Who Waited unfolds at an unhurried pace, its reassuringly cozy aesthetic concealing dark undercurrents of mental illness and familial dysfunction. Meticulously crafted and brimming with clever twists, Kate High's latest is a lovely throwback to the Golden Age of detective fiction.