Strange but True (49 page)

“Riveting and laced with insight about choice, fate, and luck.”

—New York Times

“Before you start reading John Searles's
Boy Still Missing
, bid your family and friends au revoir. John Searles is such a masterful storyteller and his hero Dominick is so cocky and so tender that there will be inevitable comparisons to J. D. Salinger.
Boy Still Missing
is essentially a small-town saga but with big American themes all pouring from the author's great compassionate heart.”

—Frank McCourt, bestselling author of
Angela's Ashes
and '
Tis

Boy Still Missing
(2001)
ISBN 0-06-082243-0 (paperback)

I
T IS
J
UNE
1971, and Dominick Pindle, a tenderhearted but aimless Massachusetts teenager, spends his nights driving around with his mother and dragging his wayward father out of bars. Late one evening, Dominick's search puts him face-to-face with his father's seductive mistress, Edie Kramer. Instantly in lust, he begins a forbidden relationship with this beautiful, mysterious woman. Before long, though, their erotic entanglement leads to a shocking death, and Dominick discovers that the mother he betrayed hid secrets as dark and destructive as his own.

Charged with the exhilarating narrative pace of a thriller and set during a complicated and explosive era,
Boy Still Missing
, is the critically acclaimed and bestselling debut novel from John Searles. It renders a deeply affecting portrait of a boy whose passage into adulthood proves as complex and impassioned as the hasty that unfolds before his eyes.

MORE PRAISE FOR
Boy Still Missing

“Boy Still Missing
is a powerful and poignant tale of adolescent angst that places John Searles alongside Ethan Canin and Michael Chabon among the top young novelists of our time.”

—Providence Journal

“I meant to get so much done on the day I picked up John Searles's
Boy Still Missing
. Instead, my ‘things to do' list blew away, the clock face blurred, and I read—hungrily, compulsively, worried sick for a troubled young character about whom I cared deeply.”

—Wally Lamb, bestselling author of
I Know This Much Is True
and
She's Come Undone

“A lively thriller with a big heart.”

—Esquire

“My ‘things to do' list blew away, the clock face blurred, and I read—hungrily, compulsively.”

“Captivating… A vivid blue-collar coming-of-age story… Like Russell Banks, Searles combines a rapid and intricate plot with major social concerns.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A taut, well-nuanced portrait of a troubled kid … caught in a whirlwind of circumstance Searles builds suspense and excitement with surprising turns of plot.”

—Booklist

“An involving, sometimes haunting, and completely satisfying novel.”

—Baltimore Sun

“[A] thriller, and certainly, there are parts that [will] make the heart beat faster. But what thriller is so tender and bittersweet as to prompt tears as well? Searles writes even more beautifully than he plots… Save [
Boy Still Missing
] for a cloudy or rainy day when you can curl up alone to laugh and cry in your favorite chair. The payoff is worth it.”

—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A moving, intelligent, and gripping debut.”

—Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of
Midwives, Trans-sister Radio
, and
Before You Know Kindness

“But what thriller is so tender and bittersweet as to prompt tears as well?

“A compelling coming-of-age tale… John Searles is an impressively assured new voice.”

—People

“A sensual debut novel… Builds up roller-coaster speed; careening to a dramatic, poignant finale.”

—Glamour

“Boy Still Missing
takes us to a small, hardscrabble town like the one where Searles grew up, and by bringing to life the primal emotions of a character shattered by a needless death, it conveys a message of hope: People can find peace by standing up for what they truly believe in.”

—New York Daily News

“By bringing to life the primal emotions of a character shattered by a needless death, it conveys a message of hope.”

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