["They Never Came Home"] follows its leads to a crackling finale that makes the novel live up to its billing as "psychological suspense."

Lois Duncan writes well and simply on mature situations. She gives her readers comprehensible, yet not over sensational descriptions of a mother's nervous breakdown; of a plain girl discovering beauty in herself; of a younger brother learning not to live in the reflected glory of an older one; of a mentally deranged boy who has cut himself off from the love his family wanted to give him. "They Never Came Home" is a well-paced action story, with a full quota of heroes and villains, and a series of narrative hooks guaranteed to hold any reader.