What I’m Reading: The Last Child

I finished up listening to my audio book The Last Child by John Hart.  I found this one on Hoopla.  I have had Hoopla now for two month and ABSOLUTELY love it.  I’ve been using very few Audible credits since I have gotten Hoopla so that’s fabulous too.

So what did I think of the book…Good.
The premise is interesting….The girl of set of boy/girl twins goes missing and the boy who is now 13 year old tries to find her.  The dad left, the mom falling apart.  The police officer sympathetic.  Pedophiles, another abduction…and what do have?  The makings of good mystery.  I did like the book…but at times it slowed.  Also there were a few things in the book that I found to be far fetched.  For example….Johnny, the brother, gets into a fight with a guy with a knife.  He is hospitalized.  He gets over 200 stitches.  He is released the next day.  That same day he is back on the trek to find his sister all around town…even digging a grave.  I don’t care how tough you are….you aren’t digging a grave it you have 200 stitches in you…but I digress.  I guessed the ending early on but did keep reading.

Here is what Amazon has to say:“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.”

Amazon readers give the book 4.6 stars.  I liked the book but as I said above, I guessed the ending WAY early…and there were a few things I questioned so for me 4.1 stars.  I do plan on reading another book by this author though.  He has potential to have a great book.