Lost: A Lacey Flint Novel

by Sharon Bolton, S. J. Bolton

Overview

Like everyone reading the newspapers these days, 10-year-old Barney Roberts knows the killer will strike again soon. The victim will be another boy, just like him. The body will be drained of blood, and left somewhere on a Thames beach. There will be no clues for London detectives Dana Tulloch and Mark Joesbury to find. There will be no warning about who will be next. There will be no real reason for Barney's friend and neighbor, Lacey Flint, on leave from her job as a London police detective, to become involved…and no chance that she can stay away. With the clock ticking, the violence escalating, and young lives at stake, Lacey and Barney both know they can't afford a single wrong step if they hope to make it through alive.

S.J. Bolton, an award-winning author of five novels, delivers her most compelling novel to date, in which a fragile police detective and a courageous, lonely eleven-year-old boy must work together to unmask a killer. Lost provides all of the pulse-pounding suspense, beautifully drawn characters, and intricate plotting thriller fans could hope for—and more.

Please note, this title is published in the UK as Like This For Ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250042231
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Series:	Lacey Flint Novels , #3
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

SHARON BOLTON is a Mary Higgins Clark Award winner and an ITW Thriller Award, CWA Gold Dagger and Barry Award nominee. She lives near London, England. Sharon Bolton was previously published as S.J. Bolton. She is the author of the Lacey Flint Novels, including Now You See Me and Dead Scared.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Bolton is changing the face of crime fiction—if you only read one crime novel this year, make it this.” —Tess Gerritsen on Now You See Me

“Really special: multi-layered and sophisticated, but tough too.” —Lee Child on Now You See Me

“Although Now You See Me is tough to beat, Bolton comes close with this sequel. Readers will be caught up in the twists and turns that leave them hanging until the final paragraph.” —Library Journal on Dead Scared

“Outstanding . . . Bolton never eases up the tension; her tightly coiled plot and heroine on the edge work perfectly in tandem.” —Publishers Weekly (starred, Pick of the Week) on Dead Scared

Editorial Reviews

In Bolton’s eerily atmospheric third novel featuring Det. Constable Lacey Flint (after 2012’s Dead Scared), Flint befriends 11-year-old Barney Roberts, who lives with his father next door to her in South London. Barney aches to find his lost mother, who has been missing since he was four, and increasingly fears that his father may be a serial killer who’s slain a number of neighborhood boys his age in recent weeks. Though Flint is on leave from the force and continues to battle demons both personal and professional, she can’t help getting involved in the case. The stakes rise after a doctor announces on TV that all the victims died in the same horrifying way. Close-to-the-bone red herrings skillfully strewn across the detectives’ paths, convincing cop-shop procedure, and perceptively drawn secondary characters help push this contemporary crime novel ahead of the pack. Winner of two Mary Higgins Clark Awards, Bolton looks deep into the lost-soul madness of a killer and makes her vision all too horribly real. Agent: Anne-Marie Doulton, the Ampersand Agency (U.K.). (June)

Publishers Weekly

“Realistic fear, heart-stopping suspense, and jolting plot twists keep one almost frantically turning pages as Bolton grabs us from the beginning and leaves us shaken at the end. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Close-to-the-bone red herrings skillfully strewn across the detectives’ paths, convincing cop-shop procedure, and perceptively drawn secondary characters help push this contemporary crime novel ahead of the pack…Bolton looks deep into the lost-soul madness of a killer and makes her vision all too horribly real.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Couple the strong narrative drive with a pair of dysfunctional but surprisingly sympathetic characters, and you have a nail-biting thriller that will send readers back to Bolton’s previous books and, of course, have them lining up for whatever the author comes up with next.”—Booklist (starred)

“Bolton is changing the face of crime fiction—if you only read one crime novel this year, make it this.” —Tess Gerritsen on Now You See Me

“Really special: multi-layered and sophisticated, but tough too.” —Lee Child on Now You See Me

From the Publisher

No 10-year-old boy is safe in south London. At first, the kids are just missing. Then their bodies turn up on Tuesdays or Thursdays with slashed throats. Websites about the blood-drained boys appear. Someone calling himself Peter Sweep posts Dracula quotations and chides DI Dana Tulloch's police investigation as incompetent. Young Barney Roberts, who suffers from blackouts and spends the majority of his time pining for the mother he last saw when he was 4 years old and the rest tracking the crime scenes with his preteen mates, thinks his father might be responsible for the murders. His dad is never at home on the nights in question. He's obsessed with Dracula. He keeps a boat where two of the bodies were found. Barney toys with confiding in his neighbor, DC Lacey Flint, but asks her only to help find his mom. Lacey, on leave from the Southwark police (Dead Scared, 2012, etc.), is barely keeping herself together. She refuses to talk to DI Mark Joesbury, who loves her, or meet his son Huck. She's evasive with her therapist. And she's begun cutting her forearm to relieve her stress. Moreover, her behavior has encouraged Dana Tulloch to suggest her as the serial killer of the lost boys. When both Huck and Barney go missing, the emotionally overwrought Lacey is forced into action. Bolton, who specializes in over-the-top psychological mayhem, ratchets up the tension with OCD diagnoses, past furies unresolved and a reworking of the Peter Pan story.

Kirkus Reviews