When Tom Brown went missing in Canadian, Texas, in 2016, he was a high-school senior and president of his class. In a narrative that weaves intense mystery with small-town hysteria, Texas Monthly journalist and Tom Brown’s Body creator Skip Hollandsworth follows the poorly handled missing-person investigation—and the community’s subsequent unraveling. In the family’s eyes, the sheriff bungled the collection of crime-scene evidence. He and a private investigator—hired by Brown’s mother—squabbled over who the suspects were and whether Brown had skipped town. At one point, the state attorney general’s office administered a polygraph to the sheriff. Despite the tabloid journalism surrounding the case, the podcast humanizes Brown. You feel his warmth and ambition, even though his voice is heard very little. When a life is cut short, it’s up to the living to fill in the blanks.