Just Finished Reading John Hart's The Last Child

I just happened to be browsing through the book section of a local CVS the other day when I came upon an interesting-looking paperback: The Last Child by John Hart.  I picked it up and examined it: good, not part of any series...just a simple, self-contained novel.  And so I went about reading it for the last few days...it was a good investment of my time...

The Last Child, published in 2009, is set in a fictional county in today's north-central North Carolina.  A thirteen-year old boy named Johnny Merrimon is on a personal crusade to find his twin sister Alyssa, abducted the year before.  In the course of his single-minded quest, his personality has become wilder and many around town see him as disturbed, if not actually crazy.  His own family had broken up over the tragedy of his sister and he is now living with his mother, the father having disappeared from the scene.  A rather evil, wealthy man who owns much of the town has her under his control, and he is brutal toward Johnny.  Also looking for lost Alyssa is a local police detective named Clyde Hunt...he is nearly as obsessed about the unsolved case as Johnny.  Throw in Johnny's only remaining friend, Jack Cross...along with Jack's family...and Levi Freemantle, the mysterious giant prison escapee who plays a hidden role in it all as a sort of wild-card character, and the story is set to turn in many different directions until it is all resolved at the end...

The mystery of The Last Child is manifold: one, who is responsible for Alyssa's disappearance a year before?  I thought I figured that one out early in the story...but I was in the end only partially right with my guess.  Two, what happened to Johnny's father?  He had been searching for Alyssa, but suddenly left and never came back.  And of course, the biggest question: where is Alyssa? 

John Hart did a magnificent job balancing all of the numerous plot twists with the character development.  I was left at the end understanding why he included many characters who I didn't think were relevant to the story...but it all eventually comes together.  Moreover, the author...like Stephen King with his focus on small-town Maine...introduced me to his own home of rural North Carolina...

So, you can probably see from all this that I liked The Last Child, and you would be correct.  It's not too long of a book, and the story, a good mystery, is well-told with strong, memorable characters...