History Literature / MissingSinceMonday

* DaylightHorror: Courtenay is kidnapped in the morning, as she is dropped off at school. The kid napping is discovered that afternoon, as a storm is breaking.

* TheEighties: The majority of the events in the novel take place from April 21 to May 10, 1986. Even aside from the author expressly stating this, there are other clues: the StrangerDanger theme of the story; the presence of [=VCRs=], which not everybody owns; the absence of caller ID that would have easily put the brakes on Brad's telephone harassment of Maggie[[note]]at the time of this story, caller ID was available, but was a luxury that most people couldn't afford[[/note]]; the use of milk cartons to track down missing children; phone booths; and the absence of AMBER alerts, cell phones[[note]]although cell phones existed at the time, they were even more of a luxury than caller ID[[/note]], home computers with printers, the internet, and social media [[note]]a decade after this book was written, Maggie and Mike could have printed the 4,000 missing posters in their own home rather than rely on a professional printer; nowadays, they could make one poster on their computer, put it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like, and have their friends repost it[[/note]].

* EngineeredHeroics: Jessica attempts this, claiming to return Courtenay to Maggie and Mike after having "found" her. The police don't buy it for an instant.

* FiveFiveFive: The Ellis' phone number is 555-2836, and the de Christophers' number is 555-2183.

* YouCanPanicNow: Sort of. According to [[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ann-m-martin-2/missing-since-monday this]] Kirkus review, although the author "somewhat exaggerates the danger [of child abduction], her prescriptions for safety are sensible." It is notable that, despite the moral panic of StrangerDanger that gave rise to works such as this, in this story, the abduction was carried out by someone who, although not known to the victim, was connected to her family.

* AdultFear: And how. Your daughter or little sister has gone missing. She got on the bus to school, and was dropped off, but somehow never made it into the school itself. There is no sign of her. To make matters worse, a couple days later, there is a call to the police that the body of a little girl, matching your family member's description, has been found in the woods, all slashed up. One of the frightening things about this story is that Maggie and Mike did everything they were supposed to do in looking after Courtenay: they fed her, got her ready, saw her off to school, making sure she got on the bus. What happened afterward was completely out of their control. Indeed, Maggie did do one markedly stupid thing in this book, but it ended up having nothing to do with Courtenay's disappearance.

* MissingChild: Courtenay, of course.

* RealityEnsues: Although Courtenay's abduction is treated as a "stranger abduction" by the police, it turns out that, like most child abductions, the culprit was someone known to the family rather than a random complete stranger.
** On a related note, Jessica Ellis is the prime suspect in the kidnapping. Like many cases in RealLife, she is also guilty.
** Maggie screws up royally by not telling anyone about the harassing phone calls she received. A few weeks after the calls began, Courtenay is kidnapped. Contrary to the convention of CantGetAwayWithNuthin, which was very popular at the time this book was written, Courtenay's kidnapping has nothing to do with Maggie's stupidity. Oftentimes, in RealLife you screw up and nothing happens as a result, or your mistake has no connection to whatever does happen.

* PhoneBooth: Maggie calls the police from one of these when she sees a green station wagon tailing her.

* {{Jerkass}}: Robert Ford, the reporter who interviews the Ellis family, is transparently concerned more with what a good story this makes rather than the family's plight.
** Brad de Christopher, and how. The book introduces him as a college dropout BigBrotherBully to Andrew and Jane, Maggie and Mike's friends, who uses blackmail rather than his fists to get his way. It turns out that ''he'' is the one making the disturbing phone calls to Maggie, which, in continuing to do so even after Courtenay's abduction, even bringing up said abduction during the subsequent phone calls, comes damn close to the MoralEventHorizon, if it doesn't actually cross it.

* ParentWithANewParamour: Mike and Maggie’s father Owen remarried some time after he and Jessica divorced.

* MyBelovedSmother: Leigh objects to Courtenay getting dirty, eating candy, staying up late, and being warned about strangers.

''Missing Since Monday'' is a 1986 children's novel by Ann M. Martin. In this book, sixteen-year-old Maggie Ellis and her brother, Mike, aged 18, are left in charge of their four-year-old sister Courtenay while their father, Owen, and Maggie and Mike's stepmother, Leigh, go on a delayed honeymoon in the Caribbean. The weekend goes well, but on Monday, Courteney doesn't come home from school, and a call to the school reveals that she never made it to school, despite being put on the bus by Maggie that morning.

* AdultFear: And how. Your daughter or little sister has gone missing. She got on the bus to school, and was dropped off, but somehow never made it to the school itself. There is no sign of her. To make matters worse, a couple days later, there is a call to the police that the body of a little girl, matching your family member's description, has been found in the woods, all slashed up. One of the frightening things about this story is that Maggie and Mike did everything they were supposed to do in looking after Courtenay: they fed her, got her ready, saw her off to school, making sure she got on the bus. What happened afterward was completely out of their control. Indeed, Maggie did do one markedly stupid thing in this book, but it ended up having nothing to do with Courtenay's disappearance.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Okay, so you just kidnapped your ex's four-year-old daughter. Now, what do you do with her? Jessica's attempt to return Courtenay to Mike and Maggie resulted from her inability to figure this out. Also, Courtenay's dirty, disheveled appearance during her recovery (being in the same clothes she wore when she had disappeared nineteen days before, for instance), shows that Jessica was utterly incapable of caring for a child.
* TheEighties: The majority of the events in the novel take place from April 21 to May 10, 1986. Even aside from the author expressly stating this, there are other clues: the StrangerDanger theme of the story; the presence of [=VCRs=], which not everybody owns; the absence of Caller ID that would have easily put the brakes on Brad's telephone harassment of Maggie[[note]]at the time of this story, caller ID was available, but was a luxury that most people couldn't afford[[/note]]; the use of milk cartons to track down missing children; phone booths; and the absence of AMBER alerts, cell phones[[note]]although they existed at the time, they were even more of a luxury than caller ID[[/note]], home computers with printers, the internet, and social media [[note]]a decade after this book was written, Maggie and Mike could have printed the 4,000 missing posters in their own home rather than rely on a professional printer; nowadays, they could make one poster on their computer, put it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like, and have their friends repost it[[/note]].

* MyBelovedSmother: Leigh objects to Courtenay getting dirty, eating candy, and being warned about strangers.

** Maggie screws up royally by not telling anyone about the harassing phone calls she received. A few weeks after they began, Courtenay is kidnapped. Contrary to the convention of CantGetAwayWithNuthin, which was very popular at the time this book was written, Courtenay's kidnapping has nothing to do with Maggie's stupidity. Oftentimes, in RealLife you screw up and nothing happens as a result, or your mistake has no connection to whatever does happen.

** Brad de Christopher, and how. The book introduces him as a college dropout BigBrotherBully to Andrew and Jane, Maggie and Mike's friends, who uses blackmail rather than his fists to get his way. It turns out that ''he'' is the one making the disturbing phone calls to Maggie, which, in continuing to do so even after Courtenay's abduction, even bringing up said abduction during the subsequent phone calls, comes damn near close to the MoralEventHorizon, if it doesn't actually cross it.

* LiesToChildren: For years, Owen told Mike and Maggie that he and Jessica got divorced because Jessica was a free spirit, a modern-day hippie, who couldn't be tied down to one place and a family. The truth: she was neglectful and psychologically abusive, and had to be kept away from the children for their own safety.

* ''Missing Since Monday'' is a 1986 children's novel by Ann M. Martin. In this book, sixteen-year-old Maggie Ellis and her brother, Mike, aged 18, are left in charge of their four-year-old sister Courtenay while their father, Owen, and Maggie and Mike's stepmother, Leigh, go on a delayed honeymoon in the Caribbean. The weekend goes well, but on Monday, Courteney doesn't come home from school, and a call to the school reveals that she never made it to school, despite being put on the bus by Maggie that morning.

''Missing Since Monday'' is a 1986 children's novel by Ann M. Martin. In this book, sixteen-year-old Maggie Ellis and her brother, Mike, aged 18, are left in charge of their four-year-old sister Courtenay while their father, Owen, and Maggie and Mike's stepmother, Leigh, go on a delayed honeymoon in the Caribbean. The weekend goes well, but on Monday, Courteney doesn't come home from school, and a call to the school reveals that she never made it to school, despite being put on the bus by Maggie that morning.

* TheEighties: The majority of the events in the novel take place from April 21 to May 10, 1986. Even without the author expressly stating this, there are other clues: the StrangerDanger theme of the story; the presence of [=VCRs=], which not everybody owns; the absence of Caller ID that would have easily put the brakes on Brad's telephone harassment of Maggie[[note]]at the time of this story, caller ID was available, but was a luxury that most people couldn't afford[[/note]]; the use of milk cartons to track down missing children; phone booths; and the absence of AMBER alerts, cell phones[[note]]although they existed at the time, they were even more of a luxury than caller ID[[/note]], home computers with printers, the internet, and social media [[note]]a decade after this book was written, Maggie and Mike could have printed the 4,000 missing posters in their own home rather than rely on a professional printer; nowadays, they could make one poster on their computer, put it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like, and have their friends repost it[[/note]].

* AmicableExes: Subverted, as Maggie and Mike think their parents are this, but the reality is that their mother was driven away due to psychological abuse.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Maggie, Mike, and Brad. Also, Courtenay is often called "Courtie".
* ParentalNeglect: Jessica is revealed to have been this before she and Owen divorced.

* PhoneNumberJingle: A non-commercial one, where Maggie and Mike teach Courtenay one of these to memorize her phone number.

* PsychopathicWomanchild: Jessica is a somewhat toned down version of this. She is clearly immature, she psychologically abused Maggie in the past, and she kidnapped Courtenay to hurt Owen and his family.

* RedHerring: The harassing calls to Maggie have nothing to do with Courtenay's abduction. Jack Tierno and Birdie are also innocent.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Okay, so you just kidnapped your ex's four-year-old daughter. Now, what do you do with her? Jessica's attempt to return Courtenay to Mike and Maggie resulted in her inability to figure this out. Also, Courtenay's dirty, disheveled appearance during her recovery (being in the same clothes she wore when she had disappeared nineteen days before, for instance), shows that Jessica was utterly incapable of caring for a child.

* TheEighties: The majority of the events in the novel take place from April 21 to May 10, 1986. Even without the author expressly stating this, there are other clues: the StrangerDanger theme of the story; the presence of VCRs, which not everybody owns; the absence of Caller ID that would have easily put the brakes on Brad's telephone harassment of Maggie[[note]]at the time of this story, caller ID was available, but was a luxury that most people couldn't afford[[/note]]; the use of milk cartons to track down missing children; phone booths; and the absence of AMBER alerts, cell phones[[note]]although they existed at the time, they were even more of a luxury than caller ID[[/note]], home computers with printers, the internet, and social media [[note]]a decade after this book was written, Maggie and Mike could have printed the 4,000 missing posters in their own home rather than rely on a professional printer; nowadays, they could make one poster on their computer, put it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like, and have their friends repost it[[/note]].