Customer Reviews

The Lost Boy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I admire all of Hynd's books, and this was no disappointment. Superb read by Hynd.

After a few disappointing novels, Noel Hynd is back with a strong super creepy title. Reminiscent of Ghost, one of the best novels I have ever read, this book will keep you turning the paged till the wee hours of the morning. If you like ghost stories that will make your hair stand on end then this is the book for you.

"The Lost Boy" is a masterpiece of atmospheric horror, showing what a good author can do with words to create a slowly building cauldron of suspense.

Wilshire, CT looks like a picturesque, peaceful town to outsiders on the occasions they may stumble upon it. The locals don't particularly encourage that, of course, being insular and suspicious of new-comers. However, the town has a dark secret - the Corbett family; a family of bullies, outlaws and (it is whispered in the night) murderers. Ellen Wilder, rebounding from a tragedy on her life, buys the local paper and moves into Wilshire unaware of the buzzing hornets' nest she is walking into. When she decides to stir things up, she gets more than she bargained for.

A new member of the Corbett clan had arrived that summer as well - calling himself Franny, he is enormous and ugly even by the Corbetts' standards and his presence is unsettling to everyone he meets. He seems to come and go frequently and no one is quite sure where he fits in or whose child he is. He has a huge scar on his neck.

One night the police are called to the Corbett farm - James Corbett, the senior member of the family, is dead. He seems to have fallen out of a tree onto a pitchfork. This brings in the State Police in the person of Michael Chandler, recently returned to full duty after suffering a near-death experience and a long recuperation. Now he finds he sometimes has strange hunches that he isn't sure what to do with.

Michael, Ellen and Franny find themselves drawn together in ways that are strange and unimaginable before the end of the book; and of course, James Corbett was neither the first nor the last body. I found myself quite unable to put this book down and, in fact, read it outside while sunning which melted the glue on the spine and now the cover is off it. Oh, well :-) You'll definitely want to read this one in the light of day as well!

What can I say, this book is one of the most moving, thought provoking books I have come across. I read it 2 years ago, and recommend it to anyone looking for a great read. I think Noel Hynd is an author who definately deserves more recognition.

My friend told me to read a book by Noel Hynd and she was right. This book was so good, I can't wait to read another one by this author. I loved the sad characters but I was glad there was a happy ending. I was scared the whole time I was reading the Lost Boy, but not scared enough to quite reading.

I started reading this book on a flight from Puerto Rico to New Jersey and couldn't wait to get to my hotel to pick it up again. I was horrified to imagine people like the Corbetts really existing. Our physical life, our spiritual life, one in the same? It is wonderful to imagine that I could come back and make all that was wrong - right. Great read, would make a wonderful movie!

Noel Hynd's books are all rather slow-paced and "Lost Boy" is no exception. While I like the characters of Michael Chandler and Ellen Wilder, their constant rehashing of their background crises is overdone and essentially seems to be Hynd's way to pad the book. Chandler's death experience is frightening, but we are over-saturated with his feelings about it; same goes for Ellen Wilder and her decision to buy the failing newspaper and her regrets over giving up a child for adoption. The "Lost Boy" of the title is really two lost boys, as the reader will find out. The Corbett family is despicable and typically redneck, which is odd for a Connecticut setting. They are so over-the-top sometimes that it's almost farcical. Franny Corbett is initially pictured as such an evil force that when we find out who he really is and why he's like that, it seems like such a turnaround...not totally credible.
Why give it three stars? The book has some really frightening sequences, and in spite of the length, I found the book a good read. When Franny shows Chandler some of his "tricks" in the cemetery, including making it snow, there is a poignancy and haunting atmosphere realistically conjured.
Hynd is not one of my favorite "spook" authors, but he has given us some good chills in the past and this book is worth a read if you like ghost stories.

I thought this book was about two hundred pages too long. Okay so Chandler almost died. Every other page described it in great detail. Alright already! I get the point. The plot was good if you didn't mind being reminded of the same thing over and over.