The Last Child

By: John Hart

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Detective Clyde Hunt has devoted an entire year to Alyssa's case, and it shows: haunted and sleepless, he's lost his wife and put his shield at risk. But he can't put the case behind him—he won't—and when another girl goes missing, the failures of the past year harden into iron determination. 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.

©2009 John Hart (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

This is a great listen!

The author has the astonishing ability to create a personal link between the reader and the characters. I felt as if I had met a character or had read about them in a local paper. I always wanted to see what twist was coming up to cause me to question my assumptions. I highly recommend this book.

Beautiful descriptions

John Hart has written in a beautiful descriptive way about a painful compelling story. I've listened to it twice and will definitely listen to it again in a couple of years.

Well told tale

I had no problrm with the narration - I increased the speed to 1.15 which helped. A well written tale that did not require violence and sex to fill the pages.

narration isn't best for southern dialect

got weighted down in narrator mispronouncing THE and A. distracted from the story. took away from dialect

A Surprisingly Very Good Listen

I bought this book as a Daily Deal and it sat on my library a while before I decided to read it. Am very glad I did! The story had lots of twists and turns, interesting characters and really held my interest. I plan to read more by this author. The narrator was okay...
his pronunciation of "the" as thee and "a" (short a vowel sound) as a long vowel sound drove me to distraction. Otherwise, highly recommended.

good story, tedious narration

Scott Sowers pronounces "the" as "thee" and "a" as a long a...as in hay.
'THEE' book was 'AY' good book. That sort of thing for several hours of reading can become tedious.
The story itself is excellent and suspenseful.

action packed

Action packed from the first page until the very end. And, you can't help but like the 13 year old protagonist. If you've enjoyed other John Hart novels, you'll like this one. Enjoy

Great performance!

I really enjoyed the performance. Story was good, but I wasn't blown away. Just felt very for/by men for me.

Love this

I Read this in High School and it’s been one of my favorites ever since. I can read this multiple times and it still feels like a new read

really 👍

Wow, really Liked it 😊 If you are on the fence give it a chance. Worth a credit. Tons of turns and twists.