Lost Boy, Lost Girl [Hardcover]

Peter Straub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2004

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son- fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill-vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge. No mere empty building, the house whispers from attic to basement with the echoes of a long-hidden true-life horror story, and Tim Underhill comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled across its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For its high artistry and uncanny mix of dread and hope, Straub's 16th novel, his shortest in decades, reaffirms the author's standing as the most literate and, with his occasional coauthor Stephen King, most persuasive of contemporary novelists of the dark fantastic. This brilliant variation on the haunted house tale distills themes and characters from Straub's long career, including two of the author's most popular creations: Manhattan novelist Tim Underhill (from Koko, Mystery and The Throat) and Tim's friend, legendary private detective Tom Pasmore (from Mystery and The Throat). Written from multiple viewpoints, the narrative shuttles disturbingly through time and space as Tim travels home to Millhaven, Ill., to attend the funeral for his sister-in-law, a suicide. In that small city based loosely on Straub's hometown of Milwaukee, Tim spends time with his callow widowed brother, Philip, and his nephew, sensitive Mark, 15, who found his mother's naked body in the bathtub, wrists slit and a plastic bag over her head. Meanwhile, a serial killer is snatching teen boys from a local park, and Mark and his sidekick, Jimbo, begin to explore a nearby abandoned house. Mark grows obsessed with the house, eventually revealed as the rotting source of the evil that stalks Millhaven, but also as the harbor of a great marvel. When Mark disappears, Tim pursues his trail and, with Tom Pasmore's help, that of the serial killer who may have taken the boy away. Straub remains a master of place and character; his insight into teens, in particular, is astonishingly astute. His myriad narrative framings allow multiple interpretations of events, making this story work on many levels, yet they also increase the urgency of the story, up to its incandescent ending. With great compassion and in prose as supple as mink, Straub has created an exciting, fearful, wondrous tale about people who matter, in one of his finest books to date.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Once more, Straub employs the scene (Millhaven, Illinois) and the protagonists--'nam-vet novelist Tim Underhill and rich, super-attentive and -intuitive P.I. Tom Pasmore--of his hefty best-sellers Koko (1988), Mystery (1989), and The Throat (1993). Relegating Pasmore to the secondary cast and using Tim as both first-person recorder of events and third-person general narrator, Straub explores two appalling tragedies. Tim's sister-in-law, Nancy, an appealing woman whom many pity for marrying ill-tempered Philip Underhill, kills herself for no apparent reason. Mere days later, Philip and Nancy's handsome 15-year-old, Mark, disappears. Since a serial killer has been "disappearing" middle-teen boys from the park in which Mark and his best friend, Jimbo, hung out nights, the worst is feared. With Pasmore working behind the scenes, Tim sets out to understand his two losses. Mostly, he must get Jimbo to reveal all that he knows. As he succeeds with the boy, Tim discovers that in the abandoned house across the alley from Philip and Nancy's are the keys to the puzzles of her death, Mark's vanishing, and other mysteries. Much of what Tim learns is hideous, but some of it points to transcendent redemption for Mark and a girl who disappeared long ago in even grislier circumstances. This is the great novel of the supernatural Straub has always had it in him to write, one as beautiful, moving, and spiritually rich as the best stories in his dazzling collections Houses without Doors (1990) and Magic Terror (2000). Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: San Val (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417802367
• ISBN-13: 978-1417802364
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,592,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great horror novel, October 7, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost Boy, Lost Girl (Hardcover)

Phillip Underhill doesn't have a clue what is going on in his own home. His wife Nancy, usually a cheerful person, is getting more withdrawn by the day and the only one who notices it is their son Mark. Phillip doesn't realize that she is remembering a time when her cousin by marriage asked for help for her and her daughter and she refused to give it. When Mark isn't worrying about his mother, he is obsessing about the house on 3323 North Michigan Street.

His mother warns him to stay away from the house but neglects to tell him that once was owned by her cousin, a notorious serial killer. When Mark breaks into the house she senses it and commits suicide. Mark explores the house finding secret rooms, tunnels and staircases. He also senses the presence of someone in the house and tells his best friend before he disappears. The police think he's the victim of a serial killer but Mark's uncle Tim believes that he met with a different fate.

From the very beginning LOST BOY LOST GIRL has an eerie gothic atmosphere and as the plot moves forward the tale becomes even spookier. There are two parallel sub-plots involving a serial killer and a ghost that never intersect, leaving readers to ponder Mark's fate throughout the novel. Timothy Underhill, who also appeared in KOKO AND THE THROAT, plays a vital role in this horror thriller. He is the one who puts together Mark's actions during his last days and comes to a conclusion that is emotionally satisfying his belief system. Peter Straub continues to write great horror novels that engage his myriad of fans.

Harriet Klausner

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Ghostly Novel Of Horror And Hope, December 19, 2004

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost Boy, Lost Girl: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Tim Underhill, a novelist living in Manhattan, receives word that his sister-in-law has suddenly committed suicide, with no apparent warning. He returns to his Midwestern hometown of Milhaven to be with his morose, callow brother Philip, and Mark, his fifteen year-old nephew. Shortly after Underhill's arrival, Mark disappears. Underhill is desperate to find the boy, especially when he learns that a brutal pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity. Tim's asks his friend Tom Pasmore, one of the best PIs around, for assistance in discovering Mark's whereabouts and the identity of the serial killer.

Teenage skateboarder Mark Underhill had become obsessed by a mysterious abandoned house where the killer may have taken refuge. Unbeknownst to Mark, the house, which he had never noticed before, has strong ties to the Underhill family. He and his best buddy, Jimbo, eventually break in to explore, and to unravel the mysteries of this customized building, with its secret passageways and hidden hollows. Mark finds that the house almost talks to him - whispers to him of the horrors that have taken place under its roof. And in this evil place, Mark discovers a soul mate, a ghostly girl who beckons him, coaxing him deeper into the darkness.

"Lost Boy Lost Girl: A Novel" is both a disturbing mystery and a ghost story. It is not a traditional ghost story, however, but a tale of what happens when one believes in ghosts. This is also a novel about hauntings, sinister, filled with remorse and dread. Peter Straub touches on more traditional themes also, like dysfunctional families, the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and the onset of middle age.

The tale is told from multiple viewpoints, and moves back and forth through time and space. It is all pulled together, however, by Tim Underhill's journal entries. Straub's narrative is elegant, compelling and rich. He clearly has a good ear for dialogue, especially as evidenced between the two boys, Mark and Jimbo. He has created here an atmosphere that is at once haunting, (as in a pervasive or lingering force - melancholy), terrifying and hopeful.

I was riveted by this story and found the ending to be spellbinding.

JANA

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book of the Year, December 30, 2003

By 

Douglas Hahner (Spotswood, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Lost Boy, Lost Girl (Hardcover)

Did it all really happen, or is it a story that Tim Underhill made up to cope with the loss of his nephew?

This is a fantastic book with many layers. You could read it from cover to cover and take everything literally, and enjoy a good serial killer story. Or you could stretch your brain muscles and read between the lines.

Much like the characters in the book I believe you, the reader, should not believe everything you see, or read. A hint that Tim Underhill might not be a reliable narrator comes at the very beginning of the book. Tim believes he is a witness to a hit and run accident that leaves a man dead. However it turns out that it was just a movie being filmed and the man hit by the car is fine.

This just sets up that nothing in this book (even the book itself, in my opinion) is as it appears.

When you're done with the book ask yourself, did I really read what I thought I did, or is there more in the background?

I would love to go deep into examples of why I feel that Tim is an untrustworthy narrator, but I don't want to ruin anything for people who want to read this.

Like I said you can read this as a straight forward mystery, or you can question the narrator and see where the answers to those questions take you.

As the X-Files said: Trust No One