Lost Boy, Lost Girl (Hardcover)

by Peter Straub (Author)

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.

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978532007
• ISBN-13: 978-1400060924
• ASIN: 1400060923
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #295,937 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Spooky Horror Story, Mystery, Thriller with Plenty Chills, October 12, 2003

By	D. Rowland (a Cool Dry Place) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tim Underhill writes horror stories and is working on an opera based on the killings of America's first serial killer, Dr. Herman Mudgett. Mulling over how to accomplish this task, he decides to visit a bookshop in the Village and browse. On the way he come across the words, "lost boy lost girl" stenciled on a high street gutter, on the way home the slogan is gone. His sister-in-law committees suicide and her teenage son Mark finds the body in the tub. Tim goes home to Millhaven, Illinois to attend the funeral.

While all this is going on we find out that Mark's mother was first cousin to serial killer Joseph Kalendar, who'd been killed in prison. Mark, of course, doesn't know this, he also doesn't know that the spooky abandoned house behind his family home used to belong to Kalendar. Mark obsesses about the house in back, thinks he sees a girl hiding there. He's also seen a big guy lurking around the place.

We learn that Kalender had a lot in common with that first serial killer, Herman Mudgett. So we have two dead serial killers, one dead long ago, one killed not so long ago, and now someone starts killing teenage boys in Millhaven. A three serial killer story.

Then Mark disappears and Tim calls on his friend, Private Investigator Tom Passmore (back from Straub's "Mystery" and "The Throat") to help him find his nephew. Then Tim gets an e-mail from Mark with a link to a site called, lostboylostgirl.com. Tim goes to the site, sees Mark with a pretty girl on the screen, then his hard drive melts.

Who is this girl? Will Tim and Tom find Mark before the serial killer does? And what about that house, just how haunted is it? Real haunted I think. This horror story-mystery-thriller will keep you thinking and that's pretty good, because you certainly won't want to be going to sleep anytime soon after reading this book.

11 of 11 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 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

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)

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