All the Missing Pieces

All the Missing Pieces is an excellent book—smart, sexy, and a blast to read. Julianna Keyes, in a break from her sharp, emotionally rich romances, has written a taut, knife-edged suspense novel anchored by two fabulously flawed leads. The writing is assured, the characters are compelling, and the sex is, frankly, fantastic. It’s a keeper.

The story is narrated by Reese Charlotte Carlisle, a woman who has made herself small on purpose. Her father, once a high-flying finance mogul, is in prison for defrauding clients out of hundreds of millions. Her brother is dead, and many believe she’s to blame. Reese lives alone, avoids connection, and slips into bed with strangers when she wants to disappear. She invents new identities for every encounter. She never sees anyone more than once, never tells anyone who she really is, and never ever lets down her guard. 

One night, while posing as Denise, a divorced dental tech with a thing for dogs, Reese is on a date with a man so bland she’s barely pretending to listen. Then another man sits down at the table next to hers, and this one is impossible to ignore. She bails on her date and goes home, unsettled. The stranger is gorgeous but clearly dangerous to the careful anonymity she’s built. A few nights later, under suspicious circumstances, she nearly runs him over. And even though she knows he’s lying to her, she lets him have her—right there, on the hood of her car. She tells herself she’ll walk away. But Chris doesn’t.

He keeps showing up. Not by accident and not innocently. Reese, who trusts no one, lets him stay, even though almost everything she tells him is a lie. The sex is extraordinary. The intimacy is terrifying.

It quickly becomes clear that Chris’s interest is tied to the twenty million dollars her disgraced father never accounted for—and that more than one dangerous person thinks Reese knows where the money is. Soon, she’s slipping into disguises, creeping through underground garages, and running from men with guns. Chris is always there, but whether he’s her protector or her threat is never clear. Each chapter raises the stakes, and Keyes handles the escalation with precision and restraint.

What makes the novel so absorbing isn’t just the pacing—it’s the relationship at its center. Reese and Chris are both liars. Chris, especially, conceals things that reframe almost every moment they’ve shared. When the truth comes—and it does, clearly and without hedging—Reese has to decide what remains between them. So does Chris. (Remember, Reese is a liar as well.)

The sex scenes are exceptional. Not just hot—though they are—but specific, deeply connected to character, and emotionally layered. They carry weight. They reflect fear, hunger, wariness, and the electric vulnerability of being truly seen. The dynamic between Reese and Chris never flattens into something tidy. Keyes lets their attraction stay jagged and unstable, and the book is better for it.

Keyes has also done something unusual here. She’s created a city–Holden, NY–a place originally conceived of as an adjunct to Wall Street.  This isn’t some small town where everyone knows your name and how much you had to drink last Saturday night but rather a large, bustling metropolis. We rarely think about world building in romantic suspense but here, Holden with its planned parking and mirrored skyscrapers feels remarkably real. As Reese tries to outsmart those trying to find her, she uses the city as her ally. It’s a neat trick and one I’ve rarely seen. 

I’ve admired Keyes’ work for years—Bench Player remains a favorite—but All the Missing Pieces is something new. Its structure is sharper, its tone more exacting, and the emotional stakes far higher. Keyes doesn’t soften the characters or tidy up their damage. Instead, she lets the tension simmer as they inch toward something that might be hope—or it might be betrayal. You won’t know which it is until the very last page. 

I love a sexy, smart thriller, and this one delivers on both counts. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading it. And while I still hope we’ll get more romance from Keyes, I’m now just as eager for another tightly wound, high-stakes thriller. Because All the Missing Pieces? It’s the bomb.