Synopsis
Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is—confident in a way that he can never fully explain.
Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene.
Then a second child goes missing . . .
Undeterred by Hunt’s threats or his mother’s pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit.
Traveling the wilderness between innocence and hard wisdom, between hopelessness and faith, The Last Child leaves all categories behind and establishes John Hart as a writer of unique power.
My Thoughts
I don’t normally go for fictional crime stories, then again I have never really sat down and read one. The story is gripping, a child goes missing, the case goes cold. Family gets tired of waiting for the law to do something, so they take it into their own hands.
Johnny, a 13 year old boy happens to be the one to take the weight of the world on his shoulders. The beginning of the story was very slow reading. I had to put the book down several times.
The story is somewhat believable but the language sometimes does not sound like something a kid would say, but of course they are in the south, so it might be common talk there. Even though the story was slow it made up for it in the second half.
The chase, who did it, with what & where, was when it got very interesting and I was pleased with the twist in the story and the ending. I did not see it coming! Even though it was a partial slow read I would still recommend this book.
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