Nearly Gone

Nearly Gone is a young adult mystery novel by Elle Cosimano. It was published in 2014 and is the first book in a series about a psychic teenager who finds herself embroiled in a series of lurid murder mysteries. A sequel to Nearly Gone, titled Nearly Found, which follows the protagonist as she prepares for college, was released in 2015. Both books are unique for their tone and subject matter, which is on the dark side for YA. Inspiration for the novels and their supernaturally-gifted protagonist is drawn from television procedurals such as Bones and Fringe, though with the plotting of a mystery thriller.

The main character, Nearly Boswell, is a teenage girl living with her single mother in a Washington, DC trailer park. She is ashamed of her lower class roots and her mother’s job as an exotic dancer so she attempts to keep both secret from the other kids at her high school. Her closest friends – fellow misfits Jeremy, Anh, Oleksa, and TJ – know about Nearly’s humble home life, but not about her greatest secret: she has budding psychic abilities and can feel the emotions of others when she touches them.

Nearly and several of her friends come into conflict when they find out about a chemistry scholarship that ensures them a full ride to university and ticket out of poverty. Anh, Nearly’s best friend, has a slightly higher score than Nearly and seems on track to get the scholarship, but Nearly is determined to get her grades up and beat Anh’s score.



However, Nearly’s plans to earn the scholarship are put on hold when she is targeted by a menacing stalker. An avid reader of the personals and “missed connections” column in the local newspaper, Nearly begins to notice strange ads that seem to be directed at her. The first leads her to the unconscious body of a fellow student that nearly had been tutoring in chemistry. The girl’s body is marked with the number 10, which matches the first in a sequence of numbers that has mysteriously appeared on Nearly’s lab table in chemistry.

A week later, another strange note appears in the personals column, this one seeming to alert Nearly to something happening after the upcoming school play. Following the clue, Nearly finds the body of another student she had been tutoring, though this time the young woman is already dead. On her body is the next number in the sequence written on Nearly’s lab table. Since the sequence is not finished, Nearly begins to fear that the killer is not done either.

She goes to the local police with her suspicions, but Lieutenant Nicholson, who takes her statement, does not believe her when she says that the deaths are related. Moreover, he seems suspicious of Nearly’s interest in the case. Shortly afterward, a new boy at her school named Reece Whelan begins to take an interest in Nearly.



Reece is a motorcycle-riding rebel with a mysterious past. Anh clues Nearly into a rumor that Reece is out on parole for some unspecified crime, and that he may have murdered someone in the past. Nearly does not entirely believe the rumors as she has developed an intense crush on Reece. At first, Reece does not return her affection, but he suddenly becomes very infatuated with her, asking her to tutor him in chemistry and becoming very flirtatious when she agrees.

However, Nearly soon discovers that Reece is actually spying on her at the behest of Lieutenant Nicholson as part of a plea deal to keep him out of jail. Her budding psychic powers also pick up intensely dark and violent impressions whenever Reece is around, leading her to suspect that he may be the very serial killer that has been targeting her friends.

Soon after, a third ad appears in the personals column of the newspaper, this one indicating that something may happen on an upcoming school field trip. As Nearly fears, a third body is found by a group of tourists on the field trip. Now, Nearly has several suspects for the killer and is becoming increasingly paranoid of the people around her. She decides she will use the upcoming school dance to find the real killer.



At the dance, Nearly is lured away from the crowd by someone posing as Anh. However, the note is actually from TJ, who reveals himself as the murderer. He tells Nearly that he has been trying to eliminate her and Anh so that he can claim the valuable chemistry scholarship. Reece rescues Nearly and Anh, but not before Nearly is shot. She awakens later in the hospital where she and Reece are reconciled.

Nearly Gone was awarded the ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel, and the Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult, both in 2015.