by David Morrell
Warner Books, May, 2002.
Hardcover, 320 pages.
ISBN: 0446529400

Brad Denning is a successful architect with a
wife and son. Life is pretty good, until one day
a man shows up claiming to be his long-lost brother
Petey. Brad has always felt guilty over his little brother's
disappearance, which happened when they were both
children. Petey always followed
Brad around. One day Brad told Petey to get lost
and not follow him and his friends. Petey rode away
on his bicycle and was never seen again. Now he's
reappeared in Brad's life, looking quite haggard.
But Brad is so excited to see him that he takes the
stranger into his family. Petey knows all kinds of
details that only his brother would know-surely
he's the real thing? Petey seems to be integrating
into the family fairly well, until the family heads off on a
camping trip. Petey pushes Brad off a cliff, leaving him
for dead, and kidnaps Kate and their son Jason. Brad survives
and calls in the FBI who tells him that "Petey"
was really a con man named Lester Dant. With
the assistance of a p.i. who is a retired FBI agent,
Brad sets out to find his family, regardless of the
fact that the police and FBI seem to have given
up. As he digs into the life of Lester Dant, trying
to find out who he really was,
he steps into the horror that was his little
brother's life, and towards an unknown future in which
his own wife and little boy may not even be alive.
Long Lost is an absolutely chilling suspense novel.
Brad Denning, the man who never gives up on finding
his family, is a complex and believable character: he's
an ordinary guy who has been placed in an extraordinary
situation. And "Petey" is a vivid character that will repulse you,
even as you feel incredible sympathy for what he
endured as a child. This is a fast-paced, thought-provoking and
immensely entertaining novel.
Long Lost is available for purchase on
Amazon.com
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This review was published in the October - November, 2002 of The Internet Writing Journal.
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