The Last Child makes for a gripping audiobook despite its dark themes.  It has two central characters: Johnny Merrimon, a 13-year-old boy whose twin sister Alyssa was abducted the year before, and Clyde Hunt, the detective working on the case.  Johnny devotes his whole life to finding Alyssa, skipping school and going door to door asking people if they saw her or know anything about her, and keeping records. He is especially suspicious of single men living alone.  Asking questions places him at risk, but he does it anyway.  Johnny is an unhappy young man; he misses his father, who left home soon after Alyssa disappeared, and he no longer talks to his mother Katherine because she is permanently out of it, on medication and alcohol she takes to dull her pain.  Detective Hunt is worried about Johnny because he knows that he should really get social services involved, which would result in a foster home placement.  Hunt, himself recently separated from his wife, seems to have feelings for Katherine, maybe because she is still very beautiful.  Hunt is very suspicious of Katherine’s boyfriend — a wealthy bully who uses her and keeps her sedated. 

Both Johnny and Hunt are lonely males facing their personal battles, and they are united in their mission to solve the mystery of Alyssa’s abduction.  It’s a busy story with a large cast of characters, and the death count gets high.  Nearly everyone comes under suspicion, and the suspicion is of pedophile kidnapping, so it is uncomfortable.  John Hart’s depiction of addiction, perversion and desperation are in the tradition of the hard-bitten detective novel.  Everyone has their troubles but there is real evil out there, doing damage that will last forever.  The performance of the novel by Scott Sowers helps to bring out the North Carolina accents and works very well at keeping the different characters distinct.  It is not a book with a great deal of psychological accuracy, and it might even be accused in trading in worn stereotypes, but it is a good read nevertheless. 

© 2011 Christian Perring        

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York