The Most Wanted [Hardcover]

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

The incandescent new novel by the acclaimed author of "The Deep End of the Ocean" bursts to life with the bright light of a forest fire--in the story of a reckless love that breaks all the rules. When 14-year-old Arley Mowbray falls in love and secretly marries an outlaw, public-aid lawyer Annie Singer--whose own careful life is catapulted into change the moment she meets the girl--becomes first her advocate, and then the closest thing to a mother that Arley has ever known.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Arley Mowbray is a drop-dead gorgeous 14-year-old, who, with her long, muscular frame and mature, collected manner could easily pass for 18. And pass she does. On a dare from her outspoken best friend, Elena Gutierrez, Arley writes to convict Dillon LeGrande in prison and convinces him she's a college student (though she hasn't made it out of junior high). Therein begins an ill-fated love story that myths are made of and men die for--except that's not what Dillon has in mind. Living in south Texas in a poor Tex-Mex community, Arley dreams of a less provincial life and secretly begins a love affair with Dillon via correspondence, which produces a flurry of poetry and achy-breaky love songs. Against the wishes of family and friends, Arley weds her amour, who promptly fathers her child, breaks out of prison, and mysteriously disappears. Fortunately for Arley, she has found a guardian angel in the form of Annie Singer, a straight-talking public defender from New York. Annie becomes the mother Arley never had, protecting her from Dillon and a love-starved home. Despite the strength of their bond, both underestimate Dillon's determination to get his child, no matter the cost. Jacquelyn Mitchard's first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the first to receive Oprah's benediction, instantly making it a bestseller and thrusting Mitchard into the halls of literary stardom. Oprah's picks tend to stay within the thematic boundaries of overcoming dysfunction, harping on the nitty-gritty details of abuse. However, The Most Wanted boldly strides away from this and examines the many dimensions of motherhood, realistically depicting the ties that bind women, while supporting beyond debate that, yes, good girls do fall for bad boys. --Rebekah Warren

From Publishers Weekly

Despite portentous foreshadowing, Mitchard second novel never achieves the dramatic momentum and the emotional immediacy of her acclaimed fiction debut, The Deep End of the Ocean. But her depiction of two female protagonists is so large-hearted and wise that readers undoubtedly will be engrossed in their story. At 14, Arlington "Arley" Mowbray is a sensitive, conscientious and atypical teenager in a small, tacky South Texas town. She writes poetry, for one thing, and, instead of dating boys, she is a virtual slave to her hard-as-nails mother, whose lack of maternal instincts is shocking. When love-starved Arley begins corresponding with 23-year-old Dillon Thomas LeGrande, in jail for armed robbery, she is seduced by the poetry he writes and, with the reluctant help of public defender Annie Singer, gains permission to marry him. Soon, protective Annie takes a pregnant Arley into her home and heart, complicating her own relationship with her fiance, a death-row lawyer. Eventually, Dillon's true nature as a psychopath erupts, putting Arley and others in mortal danger. Mitchard's facility with intertwining plot lines results in a surprise-packed conclusion (with perhaps one surprise too many). Her depiction of the dizzy rapture of first love, and her insights into the maternal bond (Arley's with her infant daughter; Annie's with Arley, her surrogate daughter) are deeply affecting. Yet readers will find a troubling credibility problem. That studious Arley can transcend her culturally bereft upbringing is at least plausible, but it is unlikely that bad-boy Dillon would have the sensibility, background or vocabulary to create the poems attributed to him (actually written by Mitchard's friend, poet Sharron Singleton). Since so much of the plot hinges on Dillon's gift for poetry, the reader is keenly aware of this major flaw. Simultaneous Penguin audio; major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; author tour. (June) FYI: Mitchard borrows the name of a Chicago bookstore, Women and Children First, for the name of Annie Singer's law firm.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670878847
• ISBN-13: 978-0670878840
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacquelyn Mitchard was born in Chicago. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was published in 1996, becoming the first selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club and a number one New York Times bestseller. Eight other novels, four children's books and six young adult novels followed, including The Midnight Twins, Still Summer, All We Know of Heaven, and The Breakdown Lane. A former daily newspaper reporter, Mitchard now is a contributing editor for Parade Magazine, and frequently writes for such publications as More magazine and Real Simple. Her essays and short stories have been widely anthologized. An adjunct professor in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Fairfield University, she lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their nine children

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wouldn't it be nice if this story really was unbelievable?, April 21, 2000

By 

"j_w_b" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Most Wanted (Mass Market Paperback)

I've been reading some other reviews, and it seems that the people who didn't like the book disliked it because they thought the story was unbelievable. Wow! Wouldn't the world be nice if there were no abandoned children like Arley? No criminals like Dillon? No despicable parents like Arley's mother? The world would be a nicer place, I'm sure. But, the world is not a nice place. Screwed up things that make a plot like this credible happen every single day. Maybe some people don't like to read about them. But, if you are not one of those people - and if you like books about human compassion and the spirit of survival, this is definitely a book for you.

What got me the most about this book was the author's uncanny ability to bring you inside the head of a troubled teenaged girl. Then, when she would switch back to writing as if she were Anne, you were right inside the head of a woman who was sitting at the crossroad of her life. I could understand everything each character did, and why. This even holds true for the many "bad guys" in this book. They rang true and remained consistent throughout the book.

Some people only like to read about situations they can identify with and/or people they want to be like. If that were the truth for me, I would not have liked this book because God only knows, I would not want to trade places with any of these people. But for me, reading is about going places I would dare not go myself. And, boy oh boy did this book take me there. I wouldn't want to be Arley AND I sure wouldn't want to be Annie, either. And, maybe that was why I liked this book so much. Because, the author put me in a place I would never go myself and made me believe in it. She made me feel the hope that these characters needed to go on. Now if you ask me - THAT IS WHAT GOOD WRITING IS ALL ABOUT!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LYRICAL AND TOUCHING, April 1, 2000

By 

D. F. Norris "dfnorris" (Napa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Most Wanted (Hardcover)

There are two kinds of books that make me read fast: A very good book that I can't put down and race through to see what happens; and a very bad book that I zip through just to get it over with. This book actually inspired me to read very slowly, savoring each word like a sip of good brandy. In spite of the controversial subject matter, there is an innocence and purity about this story. In fact, Arlington reminds me quite a bit of my own 15 year old daughter, who is both naive and hopelessly romantic and incredibly beautiful. I have given her this book to read, and look forward to hearing her opinion. If the reader can get past the their prejudices about adult/adolescent relationships (we somehow accept Romeo and Juliet who were just children!)then we can allow ourselves to feel the deep love between two very different people - a love that ultimately becomes destructive. Nor is the idea of a 14-year old girl falling in love with a hardened older guy at all incomprensible. It is probably the fantasy of many of our young teen daughters. Mitchard's ability to so accurately evoke the feelings of a young, budding girl/woman in the flush of first love is astounding. By the same token her rendering of Annie, a slightly cynical adult captivated by Arley, gives a wonderful contrast. The story weaves back and forth between Annie and Arley. And so, I found myself ready very slowly, losing myself in this emotionally charged story, in no rush to leave two women I had come to admire. I also find myself looking at my young daughter differently - I take her feelings much more seriously and realize that as young as she is, she is capable of deeper feelings that we adults would otherwise give credit to. Thank you, Jaqueline Mitchard, for a magical, tragic, but ultimately uplifting experience for this reader!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment from the first page, July 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Most Wanted (Mass Market Paperback)

After being blown away by the brilliant prose of The Deep End of the Ocean and deeply moved by its poignancy and insights, I was anxious to read Mitchard's second novel, The Most Wanted. The premise of the book sounds great--the love-starved teen, the handsome prison inmate--but this book disappoints from the first page. It isn't the writing that disappoints. The prose, particularly of Arley, has the lyrical quality I have come to associate with Mitchard. It's the plot itself which is a let down. This story could have been a gutwrencher; instead,it is only a huge build up of such heavy-handed foreshadowing that by the end of the book you just want to get it over with.("Oh, so that's the blood and the fire mentioned on every tenth page. What a relief.") The conclusion is completely anticlimactic, and worse, confusing, leading to the supremely anticlimactic epilogue.

Also, the characters for the most part are not fully developed, their motivations are not believable or not fully explored; in short, they are completely unsympathetic, which is a real shame. It was never clear to me why Dillon and Arley fell so "in love" so fast, what happened between Charley and Annie to move their relationship along so fast. . .

This book is too full of impossibly beautiful, impossibly immature people moving through an irritatingly implausible plot. If you must read this book just to see for yourself, check it out from the library and save your money!