Fresh off the success of his Edgar Award-winning, New York Times bestseller Down River, John Hart returns with his most powerful and intricately-plotted novel yet.

Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: happy parents and a twin sister that meant the world to him. But Alyssa went missing a year ago, stolen off the side of a lonely street with only one witness to the crime. His family shattered, his sister presumed dead, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown in a last, desperate search. What he finds is a city with an underbelly far blacker than anyone could’ve imagined — and somewhere in the depths of it all, with the help of his only friend and a giant of a man with his own strange past, Johnny, at last, finds the terrible truth.

Refusing to lose another child, Hunt knows he has to break the rules to make the case; and maybe, just maybe, the missing girl will lead him to Alyssa…

The Last Child is a tale of boundaries: county borders and circles on a map, the hard edge between good and evil, life and death, hopelessness and faith. Perfectly blending character and plot, emotion and action, John Hart again transcends the barrier between thrillers and literature to craft a story as heartrending as it is redemptive.

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I really liked this book. Johnny Merrimon is a strong child and he shouldn’t be that strong for his age. But his dad left him and his mom and his mom found solace at the bottom of a pill bottle and in the hands of Ken – his dad’s former business partner who also took turns in beating him or his mother. The police didn’t do anything after a year of searches but Johnny doesn’t let up. He visits the local pedophiles and sex offenders. He finds a more recent kidnapped child and they both manage to escape to the nearest hospital.

The bad man they killed in the process had a small cemetery of little bodies peppered around his backyard.

The police is looking more and more incompetent in this and any attempt to do better is curtailed by Hunt and his partner as they mess things up – they even fatally shoot a suspect. Yes, he turns out to have had child porn on his computer but still – it wasn’t 100% clear. And Hunt – the detective – he can’t even keep up with his own child’s life. He chases after Johnny’s mother – Katherine – inserting himself in any situation that might make her like him. Just like a puppy, he goes and sulks when she doesn’t reciprocate his attentions.

John Hart gives the story a Southern Gothic twist that makes it feel fresh and exciting. His prose style is as rich as Stephen King’s: one suspicious local man “was sixty-eight, with bristled hair, two loose teeth and eyes like raw oysters.” There’s a riverside cemetery scene with an atmosphere that calls Charles Dickens to mind. The suspense builds to a vivid, visceral climax that tears at your heart strings.

Hart is a real find. Thrillers don’t come any better than this. I can’t wait to read the next one.