Isabel Booth is the pen name of Karen Jewell, a former trial attorney and now a writer. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Juris Doctorate degree. When she’s not writing she loves to read, travel, and cook dinner for friends. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband.
Booth's new novel is Then He Was Gone.
At CrimeReads the author tagged four thrillers "examine the effects on the sibling left behind." One title on the list:
John Hart, The Last ChildRead about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.
Set in a small town in North Carolina, the story is told one year after the abduction of thirteen-year-old Johnny Merrimon’s twin sisterAlyssa. Johnny’s father disappeared shortly after the abduction.
His mother, drug-addled and depressed, suffers a brutal, abusive relationship with a prominent local businessman to keep a roof over their heads: “Johnny learned early….He learned early that there was no safe place, not the backyard or the playground, not the front porch or the quiet road that grazed the edge of town. No safe place, and no one to protect you. Childhood was an illusion.”
Hurting, wise beyond his years, Johnny becomes the adult in the family—driving the beat-up family car, buying groceries, feeding his mother, stealing guns, compiling a list of suspects and watching them, making it his mission to find who took his sister and hopefully bring his family back together. His desperate determination is heartbreaking. The Last Child was the winner of the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
The Last Child is among Chris Whitaker's six best kid narrators in literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
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