Lost Boy, Lost Girl: A Novel

WINNER OF THE BRAM STOKER AWARD • While investigating his nephew’s disappearance, a man discovers a twisted web of secrets that threatens everything he holds dear in this “masterful tale of ultra horror” (Entertainment Weekly) from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story.“A nuanced, layered reworking of the haunted house story.”—The Philadelphia InquirerA woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son—beautiful, troubled fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill—vanishes from the face of the earth. To his uncle, horror novelist Timothy Underhill, Mark’s inexplicable absence feels like a second death. After his sister-in-law’s funeral, Tim searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help him unravel this mystery of death and disappearance. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother’s suicide Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge.No mere empty building, the house on Michigan street whispers from attic to basement with the echoes of a long-hidden true-life horror story, and Tim comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled upon its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain.

Stephen King

“Lost Boy Lost Girl may be the best book of [Peter Straub’s] career.”

The New York Times Book Review

“Genuinely creepy.”

Straub’s masterful tale of ultra horror is all that and a bag of chips!”

“A lost boy and a lost girl, a serial killer and a haunted house, a suicide and a kidnapping

The Miami Herald

“Eerie, unnerving, and concise . . . dark and surprisingly moving.”

People

“Straub is the master of subtle, smoldering dread. . . . This consummate horror novelist’s creepy, erudite vision of the beyond will chill you like the winter wind.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A real thinking-person’s thriller, a nuanced, layered reworking of the haunted house story, genuinely creepy.”

Denver Post

“A near-perfect amalgam of mystery and horror that marks yet another high point in Straub’s excellent career as a novelist . . . [He is] at the height of his storytelling powers. This one is his spookiest, most unnerving solo effort since Ghost Story.”

The Columbus Dispatch

“Peter Straub is just plain scary, never more so than in lost boy lost girl . . . an inspired mixture of creative dread and delight, seamlessly crafted so to defy description. . . . [He] breathes life into the dead, making it seem entirely possible, even logical, for such spirits to exist. . . . While the fear factor scores high, Straub makes it flow naturally because, not despite, a story line that stubbornly refuses to stick to chronology or a single narrative voice. He tells many stories in one.”

Dark Realms

“A whale of a book.”

Booklist

“This is the great novel of the supernatural Straub has always had in him to write . . . beautiful, moving, and spiritually rich.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Strikingly imagined.”

Detroit News

“A ghost story, a serial killer story, a haunted house story and an unhappy family story told from multiple perspectives . . . taut and surprisingly moving, a treat even for those who don’t believe in ghosts . . . [Straub] is a deft and literate storyteller who makes you believe in the impossible.”

From the Inside Flap

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son– fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill–vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge. No mere empty building, the house whispers from attic to basement with the echoes of a long-hidden true-life horror story, and Tim Underhill comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled across its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain.

From the Back Cover

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son- fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill-vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge. No mere empty building, the house whispers from attic to basement with the echoes of a long-hidden true-life horror story, and Tim Underhill comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled across its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain.

About the Author

Peter Straub authored numerous bestselling novels, including Ghost Story, Floating Dragon, Shadowland, and Julia—as well as The Talisman and Black House, which he co-authored with Stephen King. He also published short fiction, poetry, and a graphic novel. A prolific Grand Master of Horror, he won the British Fantasy Award; ten Bram Stoker Awards; three International Horror Guild Awards; ten World Fantasy Awards; and was the recipient of several Lifetime Achievement Awards. He passed away in 2022.

Reviews

News