The Lost Child
by Thomas Grant Bruso
GENRE: Contemporary Crime/Thriller
BLURB:
Newspaper reporter Luke Sorenson has recently moved to a new town in upstate New York. Despite the change in scenery, Luke cannot run away from a brutal, harrowing past driven by the death of his only child, Emily.
Soon, Luke is propelled into a dangerous case of child abduction, an eerie reminder of losing his daughter. An eight-year-old boy named Daniel Hadley is kidnapped from his own bedroom and it is Luke, battling his own demons, who is assigned the story of the year.
As pieces of Luke’s mysterious, violent past are revealed, so are the sinister secrets to his daughter’s demise, sending Luke into a tailspin of heavy drinking and self-torment.
The search for Daniel is on, but it may be too late for everyone involved.
Purchase The Lost Child on Amazon and Nine Star Press
Excerpt:
Prologue
He watches her. She is alone.
She is six, maybe seven years old. She is having a picnic in the front yard with her dolls.
The girl’s hair is the color of spun honey. Her eyes, dark brown, innocent, come alive when he hears her talking to one of her plastic dolls.
Her voice is lively, soft, and gentle.
She laughs as the man shifts his footing in the shadowy woods across from her house. A small branch snaps underfoot, the sound of his weight on the thick twig imploding like fireworks.
She looks up from grooming her doll’s hair and stares in his direction. The man creeps behind a leafy spruce tree to hide.
Two vehicles pass along the quiet suburban street. The man stares around the massive tree, watching the young girl.
The sound of her humming to her dolls makes him smile. A splinter of electricity vibrates through his rangy limbs. Something mechanical surges through his veins and up and down his body to his scraggly face.
Trembling, he reaches a gnarled hand out against the thick bark of the tree to balance himself. His head is dizzy. His legs are unsteady.
He knows this feeling. It is familiar, like the blade of a knife skimming the surface of young flesh. Then he hears the sound of scared children panting and crying in the back of his head. He sees their frightened eyes, pleading for their parents, and he smiles.
He slips back into the brush behind the birch tree.
Watching. Waiting.
A dog walker passes two feet away. He skulks back into the coiling shadows so they won’t see him.
He wipes sweat from his neck with the back of his hand.
The man’s identity is almost discovered when the sizeable black lab points its nose toward the dense foliage. The owner tugs on the dog’s leash lightly and starts down the street, around the corner; now, they are out of sight.
The man waits for a second or two until he’s sure they’re gone. He hugs the tree limb and cocks an ear to the sound of the young girl’s mother yelling at her from the brightly lit porch.
“It’s getting dark, Susie. Come inside.”
Susie.
Sweet little Susie, the cigar-smoking man muses.
Curly-haired Susie. Doll-grooming Susie.
When the time is right, he will be back.
My Review:
The Lost Child is told from two points of view, one is from newspaper reporter Luke Sorenson and the second is from an eight-year-old boy named Daniel Hadley.
The Lost Child is the first book by Thomas Grant Bruso that I have read. And after reading The Lost Child I have every intention of reading more. I was drawn in from the first page. I enjoyed getting to see everything through the eyes of a child. It puts everything in a different perspective.
Luke is still dealing with his little girl being taken from him. He has moved to a new town in hopes that everything will be better in another town. But of course, his past came with him. He is missing his little girl, Emily more and more every day. He is haunted by his little girl day after day.
When Daniel is taken right out of his own bed in the middle of the night his story comes across Luke’s desk. Daniel’s missing brings more pain to Luke. His little girl's disappearance hits him even harder while covering Daniel’s story. Luke has been having a very hard time dealing with his daughter’s disappearance but this case makes it even harder for him.
After Emily’s disappearance, Luke starts drinking and with Daniel’s disappearance, he is headed down a road of self-destruction and drinking even more. Can Luke find Daniel before it is too late? Who took Daniel and why?
The Lost Child is filled with lots of mystery, suspense, and sadness. It will have you gasping in some places and have you pi$$3d in others. Oh, and I can’t forget about all the sadness and heartbreak that the parents are feeling. Daniel’s parents love and care for him very much. They are good parents always doing whatever they can to keep him safe.
When Daniel wanted to go out riding his new bike all by himself or with friends they wouldn’t let him. They had to go with him and keep an eye out for him as you never know who is watching. I guess that is why Daniel was taken from his own bed. Was the kidnapper watching Daniel? Or is taking little kids from their own bed just what he does?
If you like reading stories with lots of mystery and suspense then I highly recommend that you give The Lost Child a go. Grab your copy of The Lost Child today!
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Thomas Grant Bruso knew he wanted to be a writer at an early age. He has been a voracious reader of genre fiction since childhood.
His literary inspirations are Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Jim Grimsley, Karin Fossum, and Joyce Carol Oates.
Bruso loves animals, reading books, and writing fiction, and prefers Sudoku to crossword puzzles.
In another life, he was a freelance writer and wrote for magazines and newspapers. In college, he won the Hermon H. Doh Sonnet Competition. Now, he writes and publishes fiction and reviews books for his hometown newspaper, The Press-Republican.
He lives in upstate New York.
Connect with Thomas Grant Bruso
Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads ~ Facebook
8 comments:
Thanks for hosting and reviewing my new novel!
Thank you so much for reviewing today!
This sounds like a really good story.
Thanks, Marcy. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Sounds like a great read.
Thanks, Sherry.
Thos looks like a great novel. Thanks for hosting this giveaway.
Thanks for your comment, Michael. I hope you read "The Lost Child."
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