They Never Came Home [Mass Market Paperback]

Lois Duncan (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (1971)
• ASIN: B000OL6M6Q
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,331,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lois Duncan was born in Philadelphia, PA, and grew up in Sarasota, FL.
She knew from early childhood that she wanted to be a writer. She submitted her first story to a magazine at age 10 and became published at 13. Throughout her high school years she wrote regularly for young people's publications, particularly Seventeen.

As an adult, Lois moved to Albuquerque, NM, where she taught magazine writing for the Journalism Department at the University of New Mexico and continued to write for magazines. Over 300 of her articles and stories appeared in such publications as Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest, and for many years she was a contributing editor for Woman's Day.

Lois is the author of over 50 books, ranging from children's picture books to poetry to adult non-fiction, but is best known for her young adult suspense novels, which have received Young Readers Awards in 16 states and three foreign countries. In 1992, Lois was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award, presented by the School Library Journal and the ALA Young Adult Library Services Association for "a distinguished body of adolescent literature." In 2009, she received the Katharine Drexel Award, awarded by the Catholic Library Association "to recognize an outstanding contribution by an individual to the growth of high school and young adult librarianship and literature."

Six of her novels -- SUMMER OF FEAR, KILLING MR. GRIFFIN, GALLOWS HILL, RANSOM, DON'T LOOK BEHIND YOU and STRANGER WITH MY FACE -- were made-for-TV movies. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and HOTEL FOR DOGS were box office hits.

Although young people are most familiar with Lois Duncan's fictional suspense novels, adults may know her best as the author of WHO KILLED MY DAUGHTER?, the true story of the murder of Kaitlyn Arquette, the youngest of Lois's five children. Kait's heartbreaking story has been featured on such TV shows as Unsolved Mysteries, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Sally Jessy Raphael and Inside Edition. A full account of the family's on-going personal investigation of this still unsolved homicide can be found on the Internet at http://kaitarquette.arquettes.com.

Lois Duncan's personal web page is at http://loisduncan.arquettes.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent nail biter!, April 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: They Never Came Home (Laurel leaf suspense) (Paperback)

I bought this book for my teenage sons to read. When they told me how good the book was, I decided to read it. They were right. I loved it! The suspense is so fast paced. There was never a dull moment. I gave the book to my mother and she loved it as well. It certainly crossed all age barriers. Although it is definitely not meant for young kids, I highly recommend the book for teens, as well as older adults.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars They Never Came Home, March 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: They Never Came Home (Laurel leaf suspense) (Paperback)

I thought this was a great book. It had a lot of mystery in it which I rarely ever read. It's about two friends that go on a hiking trip and never come home. After the families had agreed to end the search party, a man calls the Drayfus household to tell them that their son owed him a lot of money. This particular chapter is a critical one because that is when it takes a complete turn around. This book contains a lot of fears and mystery which makes it great I highly recommend it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars marisa's review, November 3, 2002

By 

marisa silberman (cleveland, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Never Came Home (Laurel leaf suspense) (Paperback)

In the novel, They Never Came Home by Lois Duncan, two boys; Larry Drayfus and Dan Cotwell go camping one weekend and never return home. When the boys hadn't come home from camping in three days their family's started to get nervous. Larry was grounded and was supposed to be sent off to military school the next fall. But when he invited his sister, Joan's boyfriend, Dan to go camping with him for the weekend he was granted permission to go. Dan was graduating this year and was supposed to be valedictorian. They had planned to go to the Mogollons Mountains for the weekend and return on Sunday night. But when Wednesday rolled around people started to wonder what was going on and they sent out search parties for them. After days of searching they gave up and figured they were dead. Until Joan got a call from a man named Mr. Brown....
I would recommend this novel to people my age. I would recommend it because it keeps you on the edge of your seat and you never want to put it down. I had to read this for English class and usually I dislike all the books I read for English. But this book was so good I read all 185 pages of it in two days because I could not wait to finish it. This book has many twists and turns and really makes you think about the people and world around you.