Locust Lane
A Novel
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
"‘Locust Lane’ is as perceptive as it is compulsively readable."
—The Washington Post
For fans of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Stephen Amidon’s Locust Lane is a taut and utterly propulsive story about the search for justice and the fault lines of power and influence in a seemingly idyllic town. Can anyone be trusted?
On the surface, Emerson, Massachusetts, is just like any other affluent New England suburb. But when a young woman is found dead in the nicest part of town, the powerful neighbors close ranks to keep their families safe. In this searing novel, Eden Perry’s death kicks off an investigation into the three teenagers who were partying with her that night, each a suspect. Hannah, a sweet girl with an unstable history. Jack, the popular kid with a mean streak. Christopher, an outsider desperate to fit in. Their parents, each with motivations of their own, only complicate the picture: they will do anything to protect their children, even at the others’ expense.
With a brilliantly woven, intricately crafted plot that gathers momentum on every page, this is superb storytelling told in terse prose—a dynamic read that is both intensely gripping and deeply affecting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this uneven mystery from Amidon (The Real Justine), Patrick Noone, whose life went off the rails after his teenage daughter fatally overdosed on heroin, hits a dog late one late night while driving impaired in Emerson, Mass. When he tries to tend to the animal, he spots a man hiding in some trees. He thinks little of the incident until he learns that the house the man had been lurking near was the site of the recent bludgeoning murder of teenager Eden Perry, the dog's owner. Meanwhile, the police focus on three of Eden's peers: spoiled rich boy Jack Parrish; Jack's girlfriend, Hannah Holt; and Christopher Mahoun, the shy son of an immigrant. As the suspects' parents try to ascertain the truth and protect their children, Patrick gets drawn into the case. Amidon doesn't pull punches in his grim resolution of the murder puzzle, but readers should be prepared for some awkward prose ("The thought of that not happening added another small boulder to the sled of sadness he was tugging through the frozen tundra of his life"). This works better as a character study than a whodunit.
