Boy Still Missing

It is June 1971. Dominick Pindle, a tenderhearted but aimless Massachusetts teenager, spends his nights driving around with his mother and dragging his wayward father out of bars. Late one evening, Dominick's search puts him face-to-face withhis father's seductive mistress, Edie Kramer. Instantly in lust, he begins a forbidden relationship with this beautiful, mysterious woman. Before long, though, their erotic entanglement leads to a shocking death, and Dominick discovers that the mother he betrayed hid secrets as dark and destructive as his own.

Charged with the exhilarating narrative pace of a thriller and set during a complicated and explosive era, Boy Still Missing is the critically acclaimed debut novel from John Searles. It renders a deeply affecting portrait of a boy whose passage into adulthood proves as complex and impassioned as the history that unfolds before his eyes.

Once you get into this novel, you'll forget the world--the book is that seductive, that suspenseful.

— Frank McCourt

A compelling coming-of-age tale... John Searles is an impressively assured new voice.

— People

A lively thriller with a big heart.

— Esquire

Captivating... A vivid blue-collar coming-of-age story... Like Russell Banks, Searles combines a rapid fire plot with major social concerns.

— Publishers Weekly

An involving, sometimes haunting, and completely satisfying novel.

— Baltimore Sun

Hypnotic.

— Entertainment Weekly

The dust jacket says thriller, and, certainly, there are parts that make the heart beat faster. But what thriller is so tender and bittersweet as to prompt tears as well? Searles writes even more beautifully than he plots. Save [Boy Still Missing] for a cloudy or rainy day when you can curl up alone to laugh and cry in your favorite chair. The payoff is worth it.

— Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Boy Still Missing is a powerful and poignant tale of adolescent angst that places Searles alongside Ethan Canin and Michael Chabon among the top novelists of our time.

— Providence Journal

A sensual debut novel... Builds up roller-coaster speed, careening to a dramatic, poignant finale.

— Glamour

Riveting and laced with insight about choice, fate, and luck.

— New York Times

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