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

Outstanding

This is a truly outstanding book. It stole my interest from the very beginning and never once lost it. It's the kind of book that has stories within stories. It is, at the same time, a great mystery with plenty of suspense. My ONLY negagative comment is concerning the narrator. His over-pronunciation of words like A and THE made the reading sound extremely choppy at times.

Great book!

I have been a member of Audible for years and this is one of the best books I've listened to. Scott Sowers does a great job with the narration; his voice flows seamlessly from one character to the next. If you really like stories that you can lose yourself in, then this is a great one.

Just a fantastic story!

i had recently read a brilliant John Hart book called Down River so when i got my audible credit, i thought i would try another. after reading some reviews which critized the accent i didnt think it would make much difference to me being from australia, so went ahead and downloaded it. thank heavens i did as it was a fantastic story. every time i thought i had it worked out i soon after was proved wrong. never would have guessed the ending. tragedy and hope and a little boy who would never give up.

More than I expected

Where does The Last Child rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to a lot of books, and can't really put this in a 1-10 type order. I can say that this book rates a little above the middle line, a little above average. I'm a hard person to please because I read and listen to an average of 5-7 books a week.

What other book might you compare The Last Child to and why?

I don't really have a particular book to compare this one to. It stands alone on it's own merit with it's own storyline.

Which scene was your favorite?

I have a couple that tie for really good scenes. The first was a flashback to learning about the detective helping our main character because he knows how important it is that this young man know what happened to his twin sister. The second is when we find out the truth behind what happened and the emotional breakthrough of the same young man. I can't say much more because I don't like to give away any of the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The performance was not bad actually. As with other audio books, I think there should always be a minimum of 2 readers, one male and one female, if not more. There are not many audible books like that so I figure it is a money issue.

Any additional comments?

Suspenseful and well written. Not a horror book, but it did take me a number of chapters before I figured out "who did it". This may not be a 5 star book but it was at least a 3 1/2 or 4 star for me. Worth the credit I used.

Starts slowly but builds suspense

Entertaining story if a stretch of the imagination. Nice quality voice, but the narrator is too deliberate and his pronunciation is somewhat belabored and overly precise in regard to "a" and "the." Speeding up to 1.25 helped some.

Riveting!

OMG!. Super excited to discover this author and this book has it all! So sorry it ended.

Great Story, too bad narration isnt.

The story is as good as you expect from John Hart. I had a very hard time making it through the narration. The narrator did a nice job with character voices but his diction and annunciation at times were painful. Often in the same sentence he would use long and short A's . Even worse he would use " the" and " thee" like a nervous 3rd grader in front of class . I couldnt focus on the story for flinching at choppy, inconsistent narration.

Good story!!

I thought the book was well-written and the narration was ok. Not the best but overall a good listen!

Never again...

As much as I enjoyed this book, I will never listen to another audiobook read by Scott Sowers. After a short time his narration was like nails on a chalkboard. It was all I could do to finish. Fortunately John Hart wrote a great book despite the horrid narration.

God Knows

This was a first for me; first John Hart and first Scott Sowers. I was pleasantly pleased with both. Scott Sowers may move into my 2nd favorite reader spot behind Will Patton! While I had ideas about the outcome, I wasn't sure, and even though I was on target, I didn't hit a bullseye. That is always a bonus for me, when the book actually does supply clues to work with, and have them difficult enough that I don't always get "who dun'it". I was very involved with so many of the characters, I can almost give a visual description of them from my own perception. Even the detailed subplots were valid and important to the theme. I really love it when that happens, too often subplots seem like "filler". The message of redemption is there and not preachy; almost not there. I look forward to reading more John Hart, and will look for Sowers to read in other books. I do wish I knew for sure what happens next, but probably not enough for a serial, I'm getting a little tired of writers getting rich off my addiction to find out what happens to so&so next. Now I just wish it was easier to fix my typos in these reviews!