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Lost Girls

A Novel

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About The Book

This spellbinding literary ghost story won raves when it was first published in 2000, with The Boston Globe hailing Bartholomew Crane as "a protagonist for the new millennium" and The New York Times declaring, "Everything about this dark, disquieting story confounds expectations."

When hotshot young attorney Barth Crane is shipped off into the backwoods town of Murdoch, Ontario to try his first murder case, nothing is as it seems. First of all, there are no bodies.

Two teenage girls have disappeared and although their bodies have not been found, their English teacher has been arrested and charged with murder. Crane, a city lawyer with a burgeoning cocaine problem and disdain for the bumbling townspeople, is convinced he can successfully defend his client, Thomas Tripp, in the absence of hard evidence—let alone a body.

But Tripp is not forthcoming with his lawyer and the locals are just as wary of Barth Crane as he is of them. And faced with increasing isolation and whispered legends of the town’s infamous ghost—the Lady of the Lake—not to mention his own drug-fueled paranoia, Crane finds himself less confident as the trial wears on and the lost girls demand to be heard . . . seemingly from beyond the grave.

About The Author

Photograph by Heidi Pyper
Andrew Pyper

Andrew Pyper is the internationally bestselling author of ten previous novels, including The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Hardcover Novel, and The Killing Circle, which was selected a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year. He lives in Toronto. Visit AndrewPyper.com and follow him on Twitter @AndrewPyper.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 5, 2013)
  • Length: 400 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781476764511

Raves and Reviews

“Everything about this dark, disquieting story confounds expectations. . . . It’s hard to know exactly what kind of tale Pyper has told, but there’s no doubt that he has told it brilliantly.”

– The New York Times

“Pyper has created a captivating tale with a protagonist for the new millennium. He enriches the story with an elegant writing style and a mood that fits his story perfectly. Lost Girls was a No. 1 bestseller in Canada, and it’s easy to see why.”

– The Boston Sunday Globe

“Pyper’s spellbinding debut succeeds on so many levels — as a mystery, a legal thriller, a literary character study — that it’s obvious why it was a #1 bestseller in Canada. . . . Compulsively appealing.”

– Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

“Most memorable . . . is the character of narrator Crane, who undergoes one of the most complete yet credible moral metamorphoses in recent fiction. A debut to remember and a real treat for crime fiction fans.”

– Booklist (starred review)

“I don’t know what’s more seductive about Lost Girls, author Andrew Pyper’s scabrously witty, darkly musical language or the psychological pull of his plot. Then again, perhaps the chief attraction is Pyper’s imploding protagonist and narrator, Bartholomew Crane. . . . Dazzling word work — reminiscent of Martin Amis’ . . . First novelist Pyper isn’t a writer who’s going somewhere — he’s already arrived.”

– The Boston Sunday Globe

“It’s rare that a first novel is both brilliantly written and has a solid, carefully threaded plot, but Andrew Pyper pulls it off here. . . . Pyper understands his characters so well that Crane’s path of self-discovery is both heartfelt and gripping.”

– The New York Post

“A spooky psychological thriller with a strangely compelling anti-hero . . . a powerful debut.”

– The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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