The Last Child - John Hart

In The Last Child, we have some pretty straightforward bestseller blockbuster thriller material, competently done, but with little flair or originality. The story is well-written, but there’s nothing new in the missing child storyline that shows up the fractures in family relationships and in the wider community. Family situations and characterisation are standard issue, broken families, abusive partners, a police officer who lets personal issues get in the way of duty, and duty in the way of his own family problems. No-one could complain however that it’s not readable or that there are not enough incidents, personal conflicts and rolling developments (and a few too many coincidences for it to be totally credible), and it will certainly hold you through to the end. A good, exciting, thrilling read, but we’ve seen it all before.

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