Rating: 
Summary: Be Careful What You Wish For
Review: David Morrell is an accomplished writer, with several very good books and a few awards to his credit. Long Lost is an excellent addition to his credits list. Some parts of this book terrified me more than anything I have read since I was a child. Brad Denning is a successful architect in Denver. Still haunted by the disappearance of his nine-year old younger brother when they were children, he is has adjusted well. Deep down, however, he still wants more than anything else for Petey to come home. When he and his work are featured on a national TV morning show, he talks about his long lost brother. Naturally he is besieged by crank callers. He is stunned, however, when someone accosts him on the street and then convinces him that he really is long-lost baby brother Petey. This stranger bonds quickly to Brad, his wife Kate, and their eleven-year old son, Jason. Dale and Petey, along with Jason, even go camping at the same place in Colorado that their father took them the summer before Petey was kidnaped. The narrative flows well. Then, just about the time that it seems that if this is a thriller something should happen, it does. And how! Telling what happens, and how the rest of the tale proceeds denies the reader the opportunity to experience all of the suspense that Morrell spins to well. Suffice it to say that this is an excellent story, a real page-turner. The reader should not be disappointed in this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Another grabber without quite the usual muscle
Review: David Morrell writes some of the most gripping fiction to be found in the suspense/adventure/horror fields. The Brotherhood of the Rose remains a Favorite, and for tight, terrifying tales you can't do better than Black Evening.
But with Long Lost, Morrell seems to lose some steam by working with a first person voice. We wind up more with a character study than with a powerful, action-packed novel. Our protagonist must force himself to change from a civilized, intellectual man and allow his rage to come forth as he does his best to think like the twisted brother who kidnaped his wife and child.
So much of the story has our hero following, learning bits and pieces of his lost brother's past, that in reality we have a rather slow-moving mystery. It is not horrific as others have suggested. Long Lost is an interesting examination of what a man would have to go through when facing his own guilt while tracking a murderous, deranged brother. The finale feels quite rushed, and despite my desire to love this book, I merely liked it in the end.
Rating: 
Summary: A family is torn apart by terrors from the past.
Review: David Morrell's new novel, "Long Lost," is about Brad and Karen Denning, a happily married couple who live with their eleven-year-old son, Jason, in Denver, Colorado. Brad is a prosperous and well-known architect. He has received favorable magazine and television coverage praising the innovative structures that he has built. Brad has one major regret in life. When he was a thirteen-year-old youngster in Ohio, he once told his nine-year-old brother, Petey to go home by himself, since Brad's friends didn't want a little kid tagging along with them. Tragically, Petey got on his bike, pedaled away, and disappeared off the face of the earth. Petey's disappearance devastated the Denning family and Brad has never gotten over his grief and his guilt over the loss of his brother. One day, a man shows up out of the blue and calls out Brad's name while Brad is walking along the street in downtown Denver. The man states that he had seen a television spot featuring Brad, and he insists that he is Petey, Brad's long-lost brother. "Petey" claims to be elated to have the opportunity to reconnect at last with his family and he seems anxious to make up for all the lost years when the brothers were separated. After an initial period of understandable skepticism, Brad buys the man's story, particularly because "Petey" knows facts about the boys' childhood that no one else could have told him. Brad soon finds that he has inadvertently plunged himself and his family into a morass of terror and despair by allowing this man into his home. Is this man really Brad's long-lost brother, or is he an impostor? What soon becomes clear is that "Petey's" agenda is not about reconciliation. Brad is soon put into a position of having to single-handedly save his family and himself from disaster. Morrell's writing in "Long Lost" is simple and understated. The chapters are brief and he uses the first person, which makes the action more personal and immediate. The novel is fast-paced and exciting and the reader is kept on the edge of his seat wondering how the plot will resolve itself. The only downside is that occasional melodramatic touches seep into the narrative, and there are a few cliches which detract from the flow of the story. However, for the most part "Long Lost" is a good summer read. Put your feet up and prepare to lose yourself in a story about a desperate person who will do anything to reclaim his life from a very dangerous man.
Rating:
Summary: Wicked fast and emotionally involving
Review: For 25 years Brad Denning has been haunted by the memory of his scrawny nine-year-old brother Petey peddling away from the ballpark on his bike. "Bug off," he had yelled at Petey, "go home." But Petey never made it home Petey disappeared. All the police ever found of him was his bike and his baseball mitt. Now, so many years and so much pain later, a man shows up in Brad's life claiming to be Petey. This man has to be Petey. He knows things only Petey could know. Brad takes the man into his life and the haunted memories stop. But one day, Petey disappears again, and this time he takes with him Brad's wife and son, but again, leaves behind his baseball mitt. Weeks and months go by, their search at a dead end the only thing the police and the FBI can tell Brad is that the man was not Petey, there is nothing more they can do. But this time Brad isn't thirteen, this time he has resources he didn't have before and this time the only one Brad can count on to find his family - is Petey. Brad has to find his brother, he has to think like Petey, he has to travel the roads Petey traveled because finding Petey is the only way the nightmare will end.
David Morrell is one of the long-time great storytellers and demands an emotional involvement from his readers. Despite the brisk pace I wanted to prod Brad to move faster and I wanted to scream at him for getting himself into this situation. Long Lost does not disappoint. I suggest reading it when you can sleep late the next morning - you won't be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: Great read. Once I started reading it I could barely stand to put it down. It is writen in such a way that compels you to want to keep flipping the pages to find out what happens next. I also recommend reading Morrell's "The Protector", another fantastic read. Morrell is a fantastic author and I look forward to reading more of his novels.
Rating:
Summary: The best Morrell novel that I've read so far
Review: I have hardback (First Edition) copies of "Desperate Measures", "Extreme Denial", "Double Image" and "Burnt Sienna" (and, a couple weeks ago, I borrowed "Assumed Identity" from the Public Library), so when I found copies of "Long Lost" (2002) in the "bargain books" section of Barnes and Noble three weeks ago, I bought a copy without hesitation. I was anticipating reading this novel as soon as I bought it--but in the meantime I had checked out two novels from the Library--and received the chance to read "Long Lost" Sunday night (June 13, 04). I began about 7:30 p.m. and finished about five and a half hours later, at about 1 a.m. "Long Lost" had me hooked from the first two sentences. The book read very quickly and had a ton of action, the quality of which was near horror. "Long Lost" is, I feel, David Morrell's best book, better than the five previous novels I read.
"Long Lost" is the first book that Morrell wrote in first-person POV, which worked pretty well for the storyline. In general, the seemingly "good" guy is actually the antagonist (Petey Denning/Lester Dant), who disrupts the life of the protagonist (the first-person narrator, Bradley Denning).
Petey is kidnapped at the age of nine--his thirteen-year-old brother, Brad, turned him away when Petey wanted to participate in a baseball game with the old kids, so he pedals his bike home but never makes it there--and lived a horribly tortured life with a crazed, cult-ish "God-fearing, Bible-knowing" family, the Dants, who changed his name to Lester--they had kidnapped Petey to "replace" their son who had died--until he escaped being imprisioned when he was sixteen. For about twenty-five years, he was a derelict, a drifter, whose life had no real purpose other than to cause trouble for people and mooch off them; until one summer day when he encounters his older brother, Brad. Brad can't believe that he found his brother and takes him immediately into his home; Brad feels terrible and guilty and responsible for what happened to his brother. Petey/Lester becomes jealous of Brad's successful life--his wife, Kate, his son, Jason and his home. Because Brad had told him to "Get Lost", Petey never had a good life; Lester (Petey) decides to get retribution against Brad, so Lester kidnaps Kate and Jason. For over a year, Lester gives Brad's wife and son the life that Petey had endured. Six months after they disappeared, the FBI gave up the case, but Brad took it upon himself to continue the investigation and find his family, presuming that Kate and Jason were still alive. The FBI agent (Grady) tried to convice Brad that Lester and Petey were not the same man, but Brad's instincts were correct. Brad risks his life to get his family back, the wife and son that Petey wanted and had successfully brainwashed by torture as his own. The ending is happy; Petey gets what he deserves for having messed up Brad's life. Nevertheless, the crazy Dant couple--who perished when they couldn't get out of their house when Lester set fire to their home and then got away, after about seven years of nightmarish isolation--messed up Petey's life and caused him to be half-crazy, so Petey/Lester simply wanted life to be fair to him.
As hard as the novel was to put down (I read it in one sitting), the story it contains is even harder to forget. I guess the moral of the story is about revenge and fairness; how a person's good life can suddenly turn bad and how a person's bad life can end up even worse in an attempt to make life good.
All in all, "Long Lost" is a great book. I rate it 4 stars, though, because I feel the story could've been a little richer had the novel been a little longer (say about 400-500 pages, instead of 303 pages). I look forward to reading Morrell's earlier novels, of which there are several.
"Lost Long" confirms the fact that, now, David Morrell is my favorite author (having easily surpassed John Grisham and, to an extent, Stephen King). "Long Lost" is a must-read!
Rating:
Summary: The best Morrell novel that I've read so far
Review: I have hardback (First Edition) copies of "Desperate Measures", "Extreme Denial", "Double Image" and "Burnt Sienna" (and, a couple weeks ago, I borrowed "Assumed Identity" from the Public Library), so when I found copies of "Long Lost" (2002) in the "bargain books" section of Barnes and Noble three weeks ago, I bought a copy without hesitation. I was anticipating reading this novel as soon as I bought it--but in the meantime I had checked out two novels from the Library--and received the chance to read "Long Lost" Sunday night (June 13, 04). I began about 7:30 p.m. and finished about five and a half hours later, at about 1 a.m. "Long Lost" had me hooked from the first two sentences. The book read very quickly and had a ton of action, the quality of which was near horror. "Long Lost" is, I feel, David Morrell's best book, better than the five previous novels I read.
"Long Lost" is the first book that Morrell wrote in first-person POV, which worked pretty well for the storyline. In general, the seemingly "good" guy is actually the antagonist (Petey Denning/Lester Dant), who disrupts the life of the protagonist (the first-person narrator, Bradley Denning).
Petey is kidnapped at the age of nine--his thirteen-year-old brother, Brad, turned him away when Petey wanted to participate in a baseball game with the old kids, so he pedals his bike home but never makes it there--and lived a horribly tortured life with a crazed, cult-ish "God-fearing, Bible-knowing" family, the Dants, who changed his name to Lester--they had kidnapped Petey to "replace" their son who had died--until he escaped being imprisioned when he was sixteen. For about twenty-five years, he was a derelict, a drifter, whose life had no real purpose other than to cause trouble for people and mooch off them; until one summer day when he encounters his older brother, Brad. Brad can't believe that he found his brother and takes him immediately into his home; Brad feels terrible and guilty and responsible for what happened to his brother. Petey/Lester becomes jealous of Brad's successful life--his wife, Kate, his son, Jason and his home. Because Brad had told him to "Get Lost", Petey never had a good life; Lester (Petey) decides to get retribution against Brad, so Lester kidnaps Kate and Jason. For over a year, Lester gives Brad's wife and son the life that Petey had endured. Six months after they disappeared, the FBI gave up the case, but Brad took it upon himself to continue the investigation and find his family, presuming that Kate and Jason were still alive. The FBI agent (Grady) tried to convice Brad that Lester and Petey were not the same man, but Brad's instincts were correct. Brad risks his life to get his family back, the wife and son that Petey wanted and had successfully brainwashed by torture as his own. The ending is happy; Petey gets what he deserves for having messed up Brad's life. Nevertheless, the crazy Dant couple--who perished when they couldn't get out of their house when Lester set fire to their home and then got away, after about seven years of nightmarish isolation--messed up Petey's life and caused him to be half-crazy, so Petey/Lester simply wanted life to be fair to him.
As hard as the novel was to put down (I read it in one sitting), the story it contains is even harder to forget. I guess the moral of the story is about revenge and fairness; how a person's good life can suddenly turn bad and how a person's bad life can end up even worse in an attempt to make life good.
All in all, "Long Lost" is a great book. I rate it 4 stars, though, because I feel the story could've been a little richer had the novel been a little longer (say about 400-500 pages, instead of 303 pages). I look forward to reading Morrell's earlier novels, of which there are several.
"Lost Long" confirms the fact that, now, David Morrell is my favorite author (having easily surpassed John Grisham and, to an extent, Stephen King). "Long Lost" is a must-read!
Rating:
Summary: Long Lost
Review: I've been a big fan of David Morrell since First Blood which I originally read in the summer before ninth grade way back in the early 70s. Morrell ALWAYS tells an interesting well-written story. Long Lost is one of his best. Brad Denning's brother was kidnapped and never found when he was nine. Suddenly, after 25 years, his brother shows up... but is it his brother? When Brad is nearly killed and his wife and son kidnapped by the man claiming to be his brother he turns to the authorities to help. After a year with no leads, it appears all is lost. Then Brad decides to go looking... This one rates a solid "A."
Rating:
Summary: Don't Lose this Before You've Read It!
Review: I've only read two other books by David Morrell and this is very different in style as well as characters to Burnt Sienna and The Protector which were both sensational novels by the way if you haven't read them yet. Long Lost is more like a non Myron Bolitair series Harlan Coben novel where the majority of the novel is a psychological thriller where you are really taken into the mind of the victim and feel like you are part of his up and down journey rather than a fast paced action hero thrill ride as the other two books I read were.
Brad Denning made his little brother go home from a baseball game because he was cramping his style in front of his friends when they were both young kids. Petey never made it home though, and now as an adult with a son Petey's age of his own, Brad is more surprised than anyone to run into his brother on the street who he had assumed was dead. All Brad wants to do is make up for lost time and lavishes money and attention on Petey. But all Petey wants is Brad's life and after attempting to murder Brad he kidnaps Brad's family. Now Brad knows the anguish his parents went through and to make matters worse the FBI tell him that the man he thought was his brother is actually someone else.
Long Lost is an extremely enjoyable fast read with extremely short chapters which make putting it down when you need to a breeze. You won't want to put it down too often though. My only criticism is that the book is a little bit predictable at times namely the ending but only drops it one star in quality it is still a sensational read. The book is not as big as some of his other novels and is only about a third of the width at most of The Protector and Burnt Sienna if thickness is a judgement factor in your purchasing decision. You should make a decision to purchase this great read though, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: David Morell is a master!
Review: I've read every book David Morrell has written and Long Lost is his best in years. The last few books he's written have been good books, but the heroes are almost superhuman. Yes, Morrell did create Rambo, but David Morrell's Rambo was a real, flawed person, not the perfect hero Stallone turned him into. With 'Long Lost' Morrell returns to the kind of human story he told in 'First Blood'. It's a fairly simple story of a boy, Petey Denning, who disappears when he is nine years old, devastating his parents and older brother. Years later his parents are dead and his brother Brad is married and successful. Petey returns to Brad's life and kidnaps his family. The story takes off from there as Brad chases his family across the country trying to save them from his brother. The characters are very real, and the situations all make sense.
Although, the way Brad tracks his brother is a little hard to believe. The ending rings very true to life. It's not exactly a happy ending. This book is one incredible book!
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