The Last Child

As a huge fan of John Hart, following his debut with King of Lies, I raced to obtain and read Down River. Those two reads etched the name John Hart in my brain under the heading "Favorite Writers". I looked forward to The Last Child for months and cannot express how disappointed I am with both the story and the writing. Many of my criticisms, even if general, would give away the essence of this story so I will refrain from too much of that here. It would be unfair to those of you who will go on and read it anyway. And you should, because you need to form your own opinion if Hart's previous two books thrilled you as much as it did me. However, I will tell you that this writing is not nearly as reader-friendly as Hart's first two novels. I found myself re-reading some passages just to try and understand what was happening, or to follow the story line, or even to figure out which character was speaking. Too many key characters were badly underdeveloped and their plights or the successes of the heroes unearthing (literally) their misdeeds failed to tap into the emotions of this reader. Twists and turns were expected, but none of them led or built up to a thrilling conclusion. What can a reader call a thriller that has no thrill but a disappointment.Show Less