GET LOST

A fractured California family searches for a missing ex-wife and mother.

Mattie Wilkerson has mental health issues, and she disappears from time to time, but until now she’s always returned. Lila Dixon, a 33-year-old baseball scout, learns that her mother, Mattie, is truly missing this time and that her father, John “Dix” Dixon, is in jail on suspicion of murdering her. He’s already been to prison once for killing someone, though that was unintentional. Even the deputy thinks Dix did nothing wrong, and he’s soon released. Lila deeply resents both parents, who divorced long ago and left her to grow up in foster care. Yet now she feels responsible for finding her mother, as the police’s missing person investigation is going nowhere. Dix insists on teaming up with her, and their sharply different personalities make for lively, amusing, and profane dialogue. Dix is a hometown hero due to his fabled minor league baseball career, though maturity issues and a lack of talent beyond hitting home runs kept him out of the big leagues. Back in Los Armarios, he oozes charm. Calling himself “aggressively hospitable,” he says, “I am beloved in this town.” That’s mostly true, the sheriff being one exception. Lila is more straightforward and is determined to be the responsible adult her parents have never been. Mattie rarely promised Lila anything, knowing she was incapable of delivering. Dix, on the other hand, constantly made and broke promises, leaving Lila perpetually disappointed. But now father and daughter work together, and Lila discovers that her mom recently deposited $250,000 in her own bank account and then sent most of it to a charity for Burkina Faso. This prompts many questions on top of the basic one: Where’s Mattie? The almond-growing business, a distribution warehouse, and Mattie’s collection of lighthouse figurines add intriguing details to the plot. When Lila suggests that one of Dix’s ideas is illegal, Dix philosophizes that “criminality is just industriousness before it’s had its coffee.” When it’s all over, he expects to have “a doozy of a story.”

Darkly funny with an unpredictable outcome.