Shauna Wickle knows what she wants: top grades for a university scholarship, excellent friends for solving mysteries, and a lifetime subscription to Architectural Digest. But when her older brother returns from several years spent in prison, her carefully constructed life begins crumbling around her ears. With her friends, classes, and family quickly slipping out of her control, Shauna will be faced with the mystery of how to protect what she loves without also losing herself. The Case of the Missing Piece, the ninth book in John Allison's award-winning Bad Machinery series, finds our mystery crew caught in the merciless claws of adolescence. Can you heal someone with friendship? Does a crush truly have to physically crush you? And can you grow up without also growing away?