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Lost Girls: A Novel
Bartholomew Christian Crane is a criminal defence lawyer who wins. Thirty-three, silver-tongued and driven by a moral code that preaches, "There are no such things as lies, only misperceptions," Barth is ripe for the first murder trial of his career. Two fourteen-year-old girls have gone missing and presumably lie on the bottom of a lake just outside an economically depressed northern town. Though everyone believes the girls' English teacher is guilty, no bodies have yet been discovered and there is little other substantial evidence. As Barth begins work on a trial that quickly slides into a nightmarish blur between dream and reality, he feels an uneasy connection to the victims—and to the ghost that haunts the lake's waters. Lost Girls is an audacious, darkly comic literary thriller that catches the reader off guard at every turn, a single mystery that fractures into many, a story of ghosts both real and imagined.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 13, 2000
About the author
Andrew Pyper
31 books1,042 followersAndrew Pyper is the author of ten novels, most recently including THE RESIDENCE. His audio-only thriller, ORACLE (2021) is a #1 Audible bestseller in the US and Canada. Among his previous books, THE DEMONOLOGIST won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Hardcover Novel and was selected for the Globe and Mail’s Best 100 Books of the Year and Amazon’s 20 Best Books. LOST GIRLS won the Arthur Ellis Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Three of Pyper’s novels, including THE RESIDENCE, are in active development for television or feature film. He lives in Toronto. Visit andrewpyper.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 203 reviews
January 8, 2018
2.5 stars. Somewhere between "meh" and I liked it.
Whenever I read a description of Andrew Pyper's books, I think they sound amazing--but when I actually read them, I don't connect very well and they're never as good as the sales copy makes them sound. Not sure why. This was no exception. The book didn't really wow me, and I don't have much to say.
Imagine the stereotypical no-morals, coke-addict lawyer: that's our protagonist. He's totally unlikeable (on purpose), but I enjoyed him as a character and enjoyed watching him "grow" (if that's the right word). I also enjoyed the supernatural elements to this book, but felt restless with the plot--I just wanted it to wrap up.
Whenever I read a description of Andrew Pyper's books, I think they sound amazing--but when I actually read them, I don't connect very well and they're never as good as the sales copy makes them sound. Not sure why. This was no exception. The book didn't really wow me, and I don't have much to say.
Imagine the stereotypical no-morals, coke-addict lawyer: that's our protagonist. He's totally unlikeable (on purpose), but I enjoyed him as a character and enjoyed watching him "grow" (if that's the right word). I also enjoyed the supernatural elements to this book, but felt restless with the plot--I just wanted it to wrap up.
September 26, 2020
“Lost Girls” is one of Andrew Pyper’s earlier works so that sways it a bit into the lower-star rating side for me. I thoroughly enjoy Pyper’s creepy, scary, eerily haunting later novels (like The Damned, The Killing Circle and The Demonologist to name a few) and although his earlier novels are entertaining, they don’t have the same level of creep factor that I love so much.
When defense attorney Bartholomew Crane is asked to defend his very first murder case (the tragic death of two teenaged girls, the presumed suspect their high school teacher) he jumps at the chance to further his reputation and make a name for himself. When Crane arrives in the small town in Northern Canada, it seems the townspeople have already made up their mind; many are convinced that the English teacher is guilty, even though there is no definitive evidence. As Crane investigates he realizes that some of the population feel the girls became victims of “The Lady of the Lake”- a local legend about a ghostly woman who presides in the lake, capturing female victims to replace the daughters she lost. With a client who refuses to talk about the incident, and mounting evidence against him, Barth begins to feel the pressure. When he too, starts seeing the mysterious ghostly figures around town, he begins to doubt his clients’ guilt, and his own sanity.
The protagonist in this one is Bartholomew Crane, a sex-driven, cocaine-fueled narcissist. He has, in fact, no redeeming qualities and is an easy man to dislike (I do not yet know a criminal defence lawyer that has redeeming qualities of any kind, to be fair) . Barth is really the only character in this novel that we get to know long enough to form an opinion of. Towards the end of the novel he begins to (albeit slowly) , grow on you.
This novel started hot, with the supposedly murdered girls and Barth’s immediate involvement in their defense. We hear about the English teacher and then of course, there’s the internal did-he-or-didn’t-he debate. Add in the Lady of the Lake urban legend, and this story pulls you right in! The unfortunate thing is it doesn’t stay that way. I found that I was looking forward to the end of this novel when I was about halfway through it; the Lady of the Lake had returned to being just a rumour and we are instead left with Barth dealing with his incest-fueled demons.
Pyper has a certain way of writing that is prevalent in this novel as well; it has been compared by some to something in the style of Alice Munro, and I can see that, too. Pyper’s writing is poetic and overly descriptive, short and staccato in places and long-winded in others. Pyper’s style of writing is original and beautiful, and I am glad to say this writing style is present in his earlier books and continues on into his later works.
Overall, the novel had a great build-up, a mediocre climax, and a relatively surprising ending. Although none of the characters were particularly likable, I was engaged enough to want to know if justice was served for the young victims and how the trial itself played out.
With John Grisham like settings, with damaged main characters and an unsatisfying conclusion, “Lost Girls” is an entertaining read if you go in with no expectations.
When defense attorney Bartholomew Crane is asked to defend his very first murder case (the tragic death of two teenaged girls, the presumed suspect their high school teacher) he jumps at the chance to further his reputation and make a name for himself. When Crane arrives in the small town in Northern Canada, it seems the townspeople have already made up their mind; many are convinced that the English teacher is guilty, even though there is no definitive evidence. As Crane investigates he realizes that some of the population feel the girls became victims of “The Lady of the Lake”- a local legend about a ghostly woman who presides in the lake, capturing female victims to replace the daughters she lost. With a client who refuses to talk about the incident, and mounting evidence against him, Barth begins to feel the pressure. When he too, starts seeing the mysterious ghostly figures around town, he begins to doubt his clients’ guilt, and his own sanity.
The protagonist in this one is Bartholomew Crane, a sex-driven, cocaine-fueled narcissist. He has, in fact, no redeeming qualities and is an easy man to dislike (I do not yet know a criminal defence lawyer that has redeeming qualities of any kind, to be fair) . Barth is really the only character in this novel that we get to know long enough to form an opinion of. Towards the end of the novel he begins to (albeit slowly) , grow on you.
This novel started hot, with the supposedly murdered girls and Barth’s immediate involvement in their defense. We hear about the English teacher and then of course, there’s the internal did-he-or-didn’t-he debate. Add in the Lady of the Lake urban legend, and this story pulls you right in! The unfortunate thing is it doesn’t stay that way. I found that I was looking forward to the end of this novel when I was about halfway through it; the Lady of the Lake had returned to being just a rumour and we are instead left with Barth dealing with his incest-fueled demons.
Pyper has a certain way of writing that is prevalent in this novel as well; it has been compared by some to something in the style of Alice Munro, and I can see that, too. Pyper’s writing is poetic and overly descriptive, short and staccato in places and long-winded in others. Pyper’s style of writing is original and beautiful, and I am glad to say this writing style is present in his earlier books and continues on into his later works.
Overall, the novel had a great build-up, a mediocre climax, and a relatively surprising ending. Although none of the characters were particularly likable, I was engaged enough to want to know if justice was served for the young victims and how the trial itself played out.
With John Grisham like settings, with damaged main characters and an unsatisfying conclusion, “Lost Girls” is an entertaining read if you go in with no expectations.
September 7, 2021
It’s interesting how time and knowledge can seemingly shape or adjust how you read or experience a book.
‘The Demonologist’ was my first experience by Andrew Pyper. Shortly thereafter, ‘The Damned.’ Two of the darkest most haunting books Andrew has released. For me, back then, I had discovered a new-to-me horror author. A writer who wrote International Best-selling novels, but novels that were just as dark and bleak as anything by King, but also as gruesome and disturbing as any of the late night movies I used to stay up and watch.
Over the years, I’ve read the rest of Andrew’s books (as some of you may be aware of! HA!) and I’ve loved seeing the worlds he’s created and the heart-pounding situations we, as readers, get thrown into.
But oddly, it wasn’t until I was knee deep in researching his work for an interview I did with him earlier this year, that it even occurred to me that Pyper wasn’t considered a ‘horror writer’ by a large section of the reading population.
In fact – for many out there – Andrew Pyper is a crime-thriller author who has supernatural elements to his work. Thinking about this really threw me for a loop. I don’t actively seek out crime books (which is funny now considering) and crime fiction often doesn’t really excite me to think about reading it (which is double funny considering I have some work out there that could be described as crime-fiction based), yet here I am constantly gushing over ‘The Killing Circle,’ Andrew’s 2008 crime-thriller.
So it was, that diving into my re-read of ‘Lost Girls,’ that I found myself smiling at the reality of reading a book that is centered around a lawyer, a crime and a court case.
It has been some time since I’d read ‘Lost Girls,’ but I was excited for this re-read for so many reasons. To re-introduce myself to Andrew’s very first book was invigorating. He’d released a short-story collection prior, but that was straight forward fiction with no supernatural undercurrents. No, this was the first book Andrew had released, which won awards and resulted from his agent at the time contacting him to represent him. When he said he didn’t have a book, she said “you will,” and the rest is history.
What I liked: The story of ‘Lost Girls’ itself is simply. Bartholomew Crane is an up-and-coming, hotshot lawyer in Toronto. In a small town in northern Ontario, two teen girls go missing, presumed dead, and one of their teachers is accused of killing them. This teacher, Thomas Tripp, hires the law firm Crane works at to represent him and in turn the case is given to Crane.
But Murdoch, Ontario has a secret, something it longs to keep hidden, even if it keeps coming to the surface.
The prologue sets the stage here and it was interesting to see a novel written twenty years ago read and feel just as vibrant and fresh as anything Andrew’s ever written. There are some noticeable time-period parts that wouldn’t hold up today (Barth has a cell phone but hardly uses it, more-so relying on left messages at the hotel lobby and there’s no usage of email or computers) but otherwise you know you’re immediately in an Andrew Pyper book from page one.
I loved the slow-unravelling of Barth throughout. As he began to feel the hooks of Murdoch lock in and things begin to not only make sense, but also reveal themselves to him. There are a few incredibly unnerving moments throughout, but nothing as unsettling as when Crane comes across the cabin deep in the woods that really does unlock those hidden memories. That moment is the mental climax, if you will, of Barth’s descent. The tipping point, where after that everything cascades rapidly and he goes from running-on-fumes-coke-addict to full on unstable and unhinged.
Funny enough, there’s a scene where Barth looks through his hotel window one evening, only to see two teen girls in flowing dresses waving and beckoning him to come down. He can’t control himself anymore. Why are they tormenting him? He heads down, only to have a close encounter with a truck. This actually offers up a moment where, from that point on, you could argue Barth was actually killed by the truck and everything after is a maddening descent into purgatory. Andrew denies this (I know, I asked! And usually he’s coy and says the readers will make up their own minds, but for this one he rejected that as never a thought he had) but it definitely darkens an already darkened story.
As soul-crushing as it was, I also loved Barth’s interactions with the locals, especially as he comes to realize that many of them know who he really is, but also seeing how much these two girls disappearing has affected the town. As though a ripple has slowly washed over every one.
This is a dark story, a slow burn, and one that grabs and doesn’t let go.
What I didn’t like: As I’ve mentioned, the story opens up with an anxiety-inducing prologue, but from there until some time in, it becomes a fairly straight-forward crime-thriller. If you’re wanting a book that is supernatural from start to finish, this won’t be it. Pyper takes his time setting up Crane’s spiral and I think the term slow-burner is very accurate.
Why you should buy this: If you’re a Pyper fan, you’ve most likely already read it, but if it’s been longer than five years, I’d suggest you dive back into the lake and see if the Lady holds up. I found everything about her unnerving, creepy and horrifying. A perfect antagonist that doesn’t arrive until necessary. If you’ve not read anything from Andrew, this would be an excellent spot to start and introduces his easy way of telling dark, haunting tales that’ll stay with you for many, many long sleepless nights.
‘The Demonologist’ was my first experience by Andrew Pyper. Shortly thereafter, ‘The Damned.’ Two of the darkest most haunting books Andrew has released. For me, back then, I had discovered a new-to-me horror author. A writer who wrote International Best-selling novels, but novels that were just as dark and bleak as anything by King, but also as gruesome and disturbing as any of the late night movies I used to stay up and watch.
Over the years, I’ve read the rest of Andrew’s books (as some of you may be aware of! HA!) and I’ve loved seeing the worlds he’s created and the heart-pounding situations we, as readers, get thrown into.
But oddly, it wasn’t until I was knee deep in researching his work for an interview I did with him earlier this year, that it even occurred to me that Pyper wasn’t considered a ‘horror writer’ by a large section of the reading population.
In fact – for many out there – Andrew Pyper is a crime-thriller author who has supernatural elements to his work. Thinking about this really threw me for a loop. I don’t actively seek out crime books (which is funny now considering) and crime fiction often doesn’t really excite me to think about reading it (which is double funny considering I have some work out there that could be described as crime-fiction based), yet here I am constantly gushing over ‘The Killing Circle,’ Andrew’s 2008 crime-thriller.
So it was, that diving into my re-read of ‘Lost Girls,’ that I found myself smiling at the reality of reading a book that is centered around a lawyer, a crime and a court case.
It has been some time since I’d read ‘Lost Girls,’ but I was excited for this re-read for so many reasons. To re-introduce myself to Andrew’s very first book was invigorating. He’d released a short-story collection prior, but that was straight forward fiction with no supernatural undercurrents. No, this was the first book Andrew had released, which won awards and resulted from his agent at the time contacting him to represent him. When he said he didn’t have a book, she said “you will,” and the rest is history.
What I liked: The story of ‘Lost Girls’ itself is simply. Bartholomew Crane is an up-and-coming, hotshot lawyer in Toronto. In a small town in northern Ontario, two teen girls go missing, presumed dead, and one of their teachers is accused of killing them. This teacher, Thomas Tripp, hires the law firm Crane works at to represent him and in turn the case is given to Crane.
But Murdoch, Ontario has a secret, something it longs to keep hidden, even if it keeps coming to the surface.
The prologue sets the stage here and it was interesting to see a novel written twenty years ago read and feel just as vibrant and fresh as anything Andrew’s ever written. There are some noticeable time-period parts that wouldn’t hold up today (Barth has a cell phone but hardly uses it, more-so relying on left messages at the hotel lobby and there’s no usage of email or computers) but otherwise you know you’re immediately in an Andrew Pyper book from page one.
I loved the slow-unravelling of Barth throughout. As he began to feel the hooks of Murdoch lock in and things begin to not only make sense, but also reveal themselves to him. There are a few incredibly unnerving moments throughout, but nothing as unsettling as when Crane comes across the cabin deep in the woods that really does unlock those hidden memories. That moment is the mental climax, if you will, of Barth’s descent. The tipping point, where after that everything cascades rapidly and he goes from running-on-fumes-coke-addict to full on unstable and unhinged.
Funny enough, there’s a scene where Barth looks through his hotel window one evening, only to see two teen girls in flowing dresses waving and beckoning him to come down. He can’t control himself anymore. Why are they tormenting him? He heads down, only to have a close encounter with a truck. This actually offers up a moment where, from that point on, you could argue Barth was actually killed by the truck and everything after is a maddening descent into purgatory. Andrew denies this (I know, I asked! And usually he’s coy and says the readers will make up their own minds, but for this one he rejected that as never a thought he had) but it definitely darkens an already darkened story.
As soul-crushing as it was, I also loved Barth’s interactions with the locals, especially as he comes to realize that many of them know who he really is, but also seeing how much these two girls disappearing has affected the town. As though a ripple has slowly washed over every one.
This is a dark story, a slow burn, and one that grabs and doesn’t let go.
What I didn’t like: As I’ve mentioned, the story opens up with an anxiety-inducing prologue, but from there until some time in, it becomes a fairly straight-forward crime-thriller. If you’re wanting a book that is supernatural from start to finish, this won’t be it. Pyper takes his time setting up Crane’s spiral and I think the term slow-burner is very accurate.
Why you should buy this: If you’re a Pyper fan, you’ve most likely already read it, but if it’s been longer than five years, I’d suggest you dive back into the lake and see if the Lady holds up. I found everything about her unnerving, creepy and horrifying. A perfect antagonist that doesn’t arrive until necessary. If you’ve not read anything from Andrew, this would be an excellent spot to start and introduces his easy way of telling dark, haunting tales that’ll stay with you for many, many long sleepless nights.
October 21, 2010
Just no. I don’t think I can take anymore of this. Not only has Pyper’s ‘Lost Girls’ lost me completely throughout a good portion of the novel, but it has got me wondering why the hell I ever came to want to pick up this book in the first place. Perhaps it was the deceiving misconception of a good storyline revolving around the murder of two fourteen year old girls and the mysteries that seem to haunt the town of Murdoch and everyone in it. Or a prologue so beautifully written it encouraged vivid visual imagery in my head. Yes, that’s what got me all caught up in the desire to want to find out more about this story. But much to my dismay, it took me a good chunk of 349 pages to get through what I ought to have read probably in the first two hundred pages or so. Only in the 44th chapter out of the 49 did I finally start seeing just how the prologue relates to the story in any way.
I must say, Pyper’s endless repetitive descriptions of everything have no doubt imprinted a crystal clear imagery of the characters in my mind like in chapter 5: “His file gave his age as fort-two, but I would have put him a few years older. Not because of the usual evidence of baldness, gray hair or wrinkles (his skin is smooth and his hair, although thin, covers most of his scalp and is more brown than anything else) but from the sticky weariness of his eyes.” (45). If only he wouldn’t spend entire chapters on such lengthy description or focusing merely on either pointless situations of a character driving down a winding road or long monotonous conversations. Perhaps the author really had no idea where this story was going because this Lost Girls has become This Book Just Lost Its Reader. I came for a good mystery law novel, but what do I get in return? A good for nothing blab of description.
The protagonist is not someone I would sympathize with either. A cocaine addicted defence lawyer who enjoys visiting strip clubs and would do anything to get his client clear of a guilty verdict, even at the cost of his job or perhaps even defying the law itself. Pyper loses his grip on reality as he emulates the suspense of horror and law mystery involving ghostly encounters, almost as if the author himself was in an unclear state of mind as well.
Read it if you must, but I assure you, only if you have an infinite amount of spare time and patience will you find joy in this long endless drivel.
I must say, Pyper’s endless repetitive descriptions of everything have no doubt imprinted a crystal clear imagery of the characters in my mind like in chapter 5: “His file gave his age as fort-two, but I would have put him a few years older. Not because of the usual evidence of baldness, gray hair or wrinkles (his skin is smooth and his hair, although thin, covers most of his scalp and is more brown than anything else) but from the sticky weariness of his eyes.” (45). If only he wouldn’t spend entire chapters on such lengthy description or focusing merely on either pointless situations of a character driving down a winding road or long monotonous conversations. Perhaps the author really had no idea where this story was going because this Lost Girls has become This Book Just Lost Its Reader. I came for a good mystery law novel, but what do I get in return? A good for nothing blab of description.
The protagonist is not someone I would sympathize with either. A cocaine addicted defence lawyer who enjoys visiting strip clubs and would do anything to get his client clear of a guilty verdict, even at the cost of his job or perhaps even defying the law itself. Pyper loses his grip on reality as he emulates the suspense of horror and law mystery involving ghostly encounters, almost as if the author himself was in an unclear state of mind as well.
Read it if you must, but I assure you, only if you have an infinite amount of spare time and patience will you find joy in this long endless drivel.
January 17, 2014
The cover promises (somewhat cheesily) this to be a novel of psychological terror. And it is, it really is, it didn't need to be advertised quite so blatantly. This is a story of morally bankrupt young lawyer who travels north to a remote and dreary small town to defend a man accused of murdering two teenage girls. Pyper, with degrees in English and law both, is perfect to write this and his talent and expertise shine here. He might very well be the Canadian John Connolly, which is quite a compliment in my book. In Lost Girls Pyper conveys to perfection the eerie desolation of his northern Canada and the ebbing spirit of a man who turned forgetting into a life goal and in the process lost much of himself. The writing, the descriptions, the characterizations are all really top notch here. Thing is, reading this was as depressing as northern Ontario weather in the fall and there wasn't much to offset it. Plot wise, both the mystery and the thriller aspects are very much downplayed, there are some horrific as in haunting facets as well, but the book is neither suspense nor horror. It's very much a psychological study of an amoral man, a lost soul really, who undergoes a trial in more than one way. And its extremely bleak and dreary, the opposite of light reading. And so it might be difficult to love, but it's very easy to appreciate. Auspicious debut from an unquestionably talented author. Recommended.
June 6, 2014
This is the third novel from Andrew Pyper I have read, which was his first.
The Guardians still remains my favourite of his, and one of my best reads of last year.
Lost Girls is quite good for the most part, and it brought to my mind some of the lingering feelings I had had while in the grips of the excellent Twin Peaks TV series.
The setting is a northern Ontario town, and the plot surrounds the trial of a schoolteacher accused of murdering two girls. Besides impending winter, the town is also overcast with the dread of legend: the Lady of the Lake, a ghost who just may have been responsible for dragging the girls down. Who knows? Our protagonist, a coke-addicted loner, doesn't care. He is strictly on assignment for his first murder trial, and his client's guilt is none of his concern. He just wants to win his case.
It was a pretty good read, but I can see why some readers weren't as keen. Pyper does seem to meander throughout, and the story flow does suffer for it. If this had been the first novel I had read by him, I wouldn't be inclined to read more of him. But I read The Guardians, so I know what he is capable of, and obviously his storytelling skill has evolved to something very enjoyable.
Next up will be the Demonologist.
The Guardians still remains my favourite of his, and one of my best reads of last year.
Lost Girls is quite good for the most part, and it brought to my mind some of the lingering feelings I had had while in the grips of the excellent Twin Peaks TV series.
The setting is a northern Ontario town, and the plot surrounds the trial of a schoolteacher accused of murdering two girls. Besides impending winter, the town is also overcast with the dread of legend: the Lady of the Lake, a ghost who just may have been responsible for dragging the girls down. Who knows? Our protagonist, a coke-addicted loner, doesn't care. He is strictly on assignment for his first murder trial, and his client's guilt is none of his concern. He just wants to win his case.
It was a pretty good read, but I can see why some readers weren't as keen. Pyper does seem to meander throughout, and the story flow does suffer for it. If this had been the first novel I had read by him, I wouldn't be inclined to read more of him. But I read The Guardians, so I know what he is capable of, and obviously his storytelling skill has evolved to something very enjoyable.
Next up will be the Demonologist.
February 10, 2008
I thought the book never quite lived up to its promise. It was reasonably well written and held my interest for the first 3/4s, but then I became tired with the repetitive themes of coked out lawyer, backwoods gothic "lady haunting the lake" saga and got a sneaking suspicion that the writer was not going to ultimately go anywhere with any of this. In the end, I was right. All the build up only to have the character turn into a stereotypical remorseful criminal defence lawyer who decides to "do good" by essentially turning in his guilty, murdering client. I was bothered by the lack of creativity and believability of the ending, but perhaps even more by its moral simplicity. It relies on the stereotypical portrayal of the criminal defence attorney as a low life who defends rapists, murderers, etc. without exploring any of the nuances of the criminal justice system and the people who serve it.
It was a reasonable holiday read but ultimately goes in the literacy donation bin....
It was a reasonable holiday read but ultimately goes in the literacy donation bin....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 3, 2015
When I first started branching out, looking for books that were out there, dabbling in the surreal genre, I came across this gorgeously weird book. Both as a writer and as a reader, I have been interested in books that were a little different, a little apart from others, books that were kinda unwanted and unloved. I read this back in 2004 and the ghosts of its characters still haunts me to this day. Read it.
January 16, 2020
Enorm langdradig geschreven...met teveel nutteloze informatie, waardoor het verhaal op zich volledig teniet wordt gedaan.
October 26, 2013
4 stars....a ghost story, a legal thriller and poetically written....fabulous read
March 31, 2016
I'm not sure exactly what to say about this story. Is it a mystery, the trial of the man suspected of killing two girls in a small Ontario town? Is it a horror story, the Lady of the Lake, who reaches beyond the lake to attract young girls to their death in the lake? Is it a discovery of one's self, the lawyer, who has hidden his past with drugs and such, a past that has affected his life to the extreme and who finds himself back where it all began? It's definitely an interesting story, but I don't know if the questions have been satisfactorily been answered for me. I mean there is a resolution and the stoy kept me turning pages to see what would happen next, but it kind of left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. The main character, Bartholomew Crane, the lawyer sent to Murdoch, Ontario to defend the man accused of killing two school girls, isn't a very likable character. He obviously has many personal issues, which originate from a tragic incident that occurred when he was a teenager. He is drug addled throughout the story, is haunted by his past and by the ghosts of the two girls (maybe) and the Lady (maybe) or is he just hallucinating. The man charged with the crime does little to help his case. He also seems to be dealing with issues, the divorce that took his daughter from him and he also is haunted. There are many things going on. Does Crane come to a resolution about his past. Sort of. You can judge for yourself. Was the story worth the effort to read through these 400+ pages? Sure, I guess so. It did move along fairly nicely. It won't stop me trying the other Andrew Pyper story I have on my shelves, but I won't rush to do so. (3 stars
April 10, 2011
Attorney Bartholomew Crane doesn't belong in the small town of Murdoch. And the town of Murdoch doesn't want him there. Even Crane's client, a teacher accused of killing two girls, his own students, doesn't seem to care if Crane gets him off or not. But Bartholomew Crane has come to Murdoch to try his first murder case -- and he intends to win at all costs. That is, until the case takes an unexpected turn. For as Crane begins to piece together a defense for his client, he finds himself being drawn into a bizarre legend at the heart of the town's history -- a legend that is slowly coming alive before his eyes. Unnerved by visions he sees on Murdoch's dark streets, by the ringing of a telephone down the deserted hallway of his hotel, Crane is beginning to suspect that what is happening to him is happening for a reason. And that the two lost girls of Murdoch may be intricately tied to the town's shameful history...and to a dark episode in his own long-forgotten past. (cover blurb)
What the cover blurb doesn't mention is Barth brought some demons to Murdoch with him, including a nasty cocaine habit and terminal ennui.
Andrew Pyper gives us a fine view into Barth's disintegrating personality and his increasing obsession with the town legend. Some very nice atmospheric touches -- I could see the trees and feel the cold, smell the dank of Barth's moldering hotel room. A good story, well-written. Recommended.
What the cover blurb doesn't mention is Barth brought some demons to Murdoch with him, including a nasty cocaine habit and terminal ennui.
Andrew Pyper gives us a fine view into Barth's disintegrating personality and his increasing obsession with the town legend. Some very nice atmospheric touches -- I could see the trees and feel the cold, smell the dank of Barth's moldering hotel room. A good story, well-written. Recommended.
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September 14, 20129/9/2012 ~ Reading *Lost Girls* for the second time (the first was in the late '90s). I was quickly lost (happily) in the Northern Ontario setting: Shield Country: my favourite place on Earth :-)
9/14 ~ The story bogged down some in the middle ...Now that the end is about 40 pages away, it's crackling. This feels like a completely different book from the one I first read about 16 years ago ... There is a spookiness, a frigid awe that gets under the skin in the reading. Desolation without letup. Everyone in this story seems lost ...
9/14, later ~ It's one of *those* books -- I'll be clutching it to my chest for a few days. One particular plot twist just about catapaulted me out of bed, and the depictions of Northern Ontario's November had me raiding the closet for another (wool) blanket.
9/14 ~ The story bogged down some in the middle ...Now that the end is about 40 pages away, it's crackling. This feels like a completely different book from the one I first read about 16 years ago ... There is a spookiness, a frigid awe that gets under the skin in the reading. Desolation without letup. Everyone in this story seems lost ...
9/14, later ~ It's one of *those* books -- I'll be clutching it to my chest for a few days. One particular plot twist just about catapaulted me out of bed, and the depictions of Northern Ontario's November had me raiding the closet for another (wool) blanket.
December 8, 2012
You're kidding, you mean I haven't already written about how much I loved this book? I could not put it down from the moment I picked it up from the grocery store shelves while out on an errand. I never buy books from the grocery store. Unable to stop, I read this till three and four o'clock in the morning with all the lights on in the house because I was so terrified. I was a wee bit disappointed that my suspicion as to what happened was never confirmed. Instead he left me at the end with only myself to validate whom it was that murdered those girls. Perhaps this is what gives me my malicious streak of leaving the ending so unclear in one of my own books. The Dark Lake
June 7, 2015
Wait...what?
That's how I felt at the end of this story, which was outstanding for the first 75% of the book, then absolutely crashed and burned into a tremendous disaster in the last few chapters. To say I was disappointed after such a strong build throughout the majority of the book is a massive understatement.
It wasn't too tough to connect the prologue to the story taking place in real time, which wasn't really a problem until the explanation came in the form of nonsensical coincidence and unexplained memory loss (and later, spontaneous recovery!). I was also irked by the fact that something set up as taking place squarely within the parameters of reality through almost the entire book took a sudden turn toward that eye-rolling, cop-out plot line of "blame it on the supernatural." Or should we? Was this ever really answered by the author? Certainly not to my satisfaction.
The author left a number of other plot threads dangling as well (Who was the Peeler? - Yes, I know what the implication is, but that makes little sense and should at least have been explained as such given that I felt falsely led to believe that it would be fundamentally important to the case.)
I can't say much more without being even more spoiler-y than I already have on that point. Suffice it to say that the ending was deeply unsatisfying and a huge disappointment given how good the first 3/4 of the book was. That's what made it worse for me, I guess...the disappointment. If the book had been bad from the outset, at least I wouldn't feel like I was ripped off in the end.
That's how I felt at the end of this story, which was outstanding for the first 75% of the book, then absolutely crashed and burned into a tremendous disaster in the last few chapters. To say I was disappointed after such a strong build throughout the majority of the book is a massive understatement.
It wasn't too tough to connect the prologue to the story taking place in real time, which wasn't really a problem until the explanation came in the form of nonsensical coincidence and unexplained memory loss (and later, spontaneous recovery!). I was also irked by the fact that something set up as taking place squarely within the parameters of reality through almost the entire book took a sudden turn toward that eye-rolling, cop-out plot line of "blame it on the supernatural." Or should we? Was this ever really answered by the author? Certainly not to my satisfaction.
The author left a number of other plot threads dangling as well (Who was the Peeler? - Yes, I know what the implication is, but that makes little sense and should at least have been explained as such given that I felt falsely led to believe that it would be fundamentally important to the case.)
I can't say much more without being even more spoiler-y than I already have on that point. Suffice it to say that the ending was deeply unsatisfying and a huge disappointment given how good the first 3/4 of the book was. That's what made it worse for me, I guess...the disappointment. If the book had been bad from the outset, at least I wouldn't feel like I was ripped off in the end.
May 28, 2013
I fluctuated between a 3 and a 4 star rating. I really liked the book, with reservations. For one thing, I couldn't help but compare it to the author's latest book, The Demonologist, which I read first. It's obvious that Pyper (the author) has improved (Lost Girls is his first novel) and yet they share similar elements: a touch of the supernatural, a protagonist struggling with his "demons," and some or all of the book set in Canada.
I enjoyed this book partly for the setting: it takes place some hours north of Toronto and I'm familiar with the area since my family has a cottage there. The descriptions of the lake, forest and cottage living were all spot on. Small surprise since Pyper is a Canadian.
I did think that parts of the book went on too long: the main character's psychological decline and the resolution of the mystery. I also found it a bit disconcerting that I couldn't figure out if there was really a supernatural aspect to the book--although the ending more than made up for that.
Like The Demonologist, the fate of the main character is left up in the air to some extent, but that didn't really bother me. I did get the feeling that his demons had been conquered, and maybe that's all the reader should expect. What comes after that would be anticlimactic.
I enjoyed this book partly for the setting: it takes place some hours north of Toronto and I'm familiar with the area since my family has a cottage there. The descriptions of the lake, forest and cottage living were all spot on. Small surprise since Pyper is a Canadian.
I did think that parts of the book went on too long: the main character's psychological decline and the resolution of the mystery. I also found it a bit disconcerting that I couldn't figure out if there was really a supernatural aspect to the book--although the ending more than made up for that.
Like The Demonologist, the fate of the main character is left up in the air to some extent, but that didn't really bother me. I did get the feeling that his demons had been conquered, and maybe that's all the reader should expect. What comes after that would be anticlimactic.
February 8, 2009
I had read this before and was glad for the chance to read it again to see if I understood it any better this time. I would say yes, although it both murder mystery and ghost story and I had trouble taking the ghost part seriously. Thinking about the "Lady of the Lake" as symbolic of our past rather than as an actual malevolent force in the lake was helpful to my understanding. I think our histories and genetics do drag us down sometimes, we can drown from the force of our past mistakes and sins, from the history of who we are. It can be too much to fight against. There was a lot of history going on in this book, both of the town itself and many of the people in it. When people commit evil does some force in the world help them or not? I guess that is a question.
November 7, 2016
Lost Girls is a somewhat unusual legal thriller, made so by understated supernatural elements, the oppressive small-town setting, and the transformation of the main character over the course of the novel. In my opinion, the writing is overly underplayed, to the point where I wasn't picking up on things it seems that Pyper was expecting me to, such as whether I was supposed to think the defendant was guilty or not. I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book much more than than the final quarter, and I didn't find the conclusion either cathartic or well-earned. Overall, Lost Girls was very well-written, but often muddled and confused.
August 28, 2013
I didn't like this book, and that annoyed me because I really liked The Demonologist and I wanted to like this.
I didn't like the lead character, I didn't like the way it was written, and I thought the plot was terrible. I struggled through to the end because I hate to leave a book unfinished, but this was really disappointing to me.
Biggest annoyance - it's half murder mystery, half ghost story, and neither is really ever explored properly. A lot of words and descriptions of forests, not a lot actually going on.
I didn't like the lead character, I didn't like the way it was written, and I thought the plot was terrible. I struggled through to the end because I hate to leave a book unfinished, but this was really disappointing to me.
Biggest annoyance - it's half murder mystery, half ghost story, and neither is really ever explored properly. A lot of words and descriptions of forests, not a lot actually going on.
April 19, 2008
I rather enjoyed this book. A tough, gritty mystery about a coke addicted criminal defense laywer and a case of two missing teens, presumed kidnapped and killed by their high school English teacher. A compelling read, and Pypers writing style is very discriptive; very tactile. The Lady of the Lake was an interesting paranormal twist to what is otherwise a very down-and-dirty criminal suspense tale. Overall, worth the reading time.
April 19, 2015
You'll discover as the story progresses why attorney Barth Crane is such a flawed & jaded individual. Defending someone who doesn't want to be defended in a backwater town in northern Ontario, Crane is intrigued by the town's history as well as his own past. I enjoyed the caustic wit, sarcasm and arrogance Crane possessed (as do most trial attorneys) and thought Pyper's descriptions quite poetic at times.
October 21, 2008
This was chosen by someone in bookclub. I couldn't get past first chapter it was so sleazy. Items in first chapter cousin rapes cousin, cousin drowns, snorting cocaine lawyer pressures rapist's girlfriend to lie in court, rapist goes free, lawyer at strip club, F-word used freely.
August 7, 2010
This was a big disappointment. I can't recall a book that started out so well and degenerated so much.
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August 4, 2011I can't say enough good things about this novel. It really captivated me. I got the goosebumps so many times I can't count. One of my all time favourite ghost stories.
November 1, 2012
What I thought was going to be a good ghost story or a psychological thriller turned out to be a mess of the combination of the two. Not really excited about it.
June 5, 2019
This was one of the first audiobooks I ever listened to. This novel played during as family road trip down to Atlanta. I was never a huge mystery fan but I enjoyed the book very much.
December 9, 2010
Can't say I liked it and it could have been better but it's ok.
August 15, 2017
Right from the first chapter, you know the narrator is not someone you would want to know in real life - he behaves in completely unethical as well as illegal ways in his work as a lawyer; he is rude and self serving; he objectifies women; and he uses way too much crack. (Although really any crack at all is too much.) I kind of hated him. At the same time, his loneliness and isolation are painful; the crack an obvious form of self medication (and addiction) that allows him to get through his life without any intimacy or reflection. Any friends he might once have had have given up on him.
The book is well written, with sentences and similes you notice and admire as you move forward through the story. It was not super fast paced, but it was oddly compelling. You want to know what happened to the missing girls, and you're not sure who is trustworthy. Is the fat lawyer right? Is the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt? Then Pyper adds a spiritual element of the Lady in the Lake. I thought it worked for the novel because the only characters who "see" her are the inmate (who is definitely odd), a crazy old woman, and the narrator, who uses so much crack that it puts his testimony in doubt. Are they really seeing something? Does it exist? It was subtle - the book is not paranormal fiction at all. And are there not elements that we can't fully understand or know in our lives? That influence our choices? The Lady also works really well as a symbol of the past, the ways in which it can haunt us and refuse to let us go. And the ways in which we might cling to it instead of accepting change.
I loved the theme of girls - how men are drawn to youth. Its innocence is beautiful and appealing to everybody, and shouldn't youth always be something to be enjoyed? But the desire to sexualize youth is to try too own it, to own somebody. The narrator finds that his pictures almost take on a life of their own - the person becomes the picture, the thing. It is another form of ownership. And there is a perverse pleasure in that ownership. As one of the other characters asks, if you imagine doing a thing, are you not also guilty?
The narrator's voice is excellent - at one point, he really sounds like he's going crazy. His decisions by the end of the book are so different from what he would have done in that first chapter. He finds that the past is perhaps something to be grappled with.
The book is well written, with sentences and similes you notice and admire as you move forward through the story. It was not super fast paced, but it was oddly compelling. You want to know what happened to the missing girls, and you're not sure who is trustworthy. Is the fat lawyer right? Is the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt? Then Pyper adds a spiritual element of the Lady in the Lake. I thought it worked for the novel because the only characters who "see" her are the inmate (who is definitely odd), a crazy old woman, and the narrator, who uses so much crack that it puts his testimony in doubt. Are they really seeing something? Does it exist? It was subtle - the book is not paranormal fiction at all. And are there not elements that we can't fully understand or know in our lives? That influence our choices? The Lady also works really well as a symbol of the past, the ways in which it can haunt us and refuse to let us go. And the ways in which we might cling to it instead of accepting change.
I loved the theme of girls - how men are drawn to youth. Its innocence is beautiful and appealing to everybody, and shouldn't youth always be something to be enjoyed? But the desire to sexualize youth is to try too own it, to own somebody. The narrator finds that his pictures almost take on a life of their own - the person becomes the picture, the thing. It is another form of ownership. And there is a perverse pleasure in that ownership. As one of the other characters asks, if you imagine doing a thing, are you not also guilty?
The narrator's voice is excellent - at one point, he really sounds like he's going crazy. His decisions by the end of the book are so different from what he would have done in that first chapter. He finds that the past is perhaps something to be grappled with.
December 10, 2017
The past is never far from the present and sometimes waves of it continues to influence long after the participants are gone. Barth Crane has become a successful criminal attorney in Toronto due to hard work and a lack of ethics/morals. He does whatever it takes to win and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. When the partners in his firm decide to give him one of the top cases in Ontario, he must travel to a small cottage town in northern Ontario to defend a man accused of killing two teen girls. When a male teacher is accused of murder of two of his teenaged students, the teacher’s own morality and life is heavily criticized. Was he inappropriate with the girls? Was he lashing out due to his difficult divorce and the loss of his own teenaged daughter? Did the girls run away or did he actually kill them? Without bodies, the girls are simply classified as lost. Lost has many meanings though, especially in a small rural town where a “ghost” story is viewed as actually history. Will Barth be able to sort through the facts, townspeople, and rumors in time to find out what happened and still help his client?
A dark mystery/thriller with a touch of the supernatural, this novel is an interesting and haunting read. Nothing seems to set in black and white – it is all just shades of gray. Reality is questionable and the characters must come to terms with their own nightmares in order to see the truth for what it really is. A fascinating read, this novel does lack a definitive ending leading readers to make their own minds up as to what happens. Very mysterious at times, this is an enjoyable read about a main character that you will hate and despise but still feel sorry for.
A dark mystery/thriller with a touch of the supernatural, this novel is an interesting and haunting read. Nothing seems to set in black and white – it is all just shades of gray. Reality is questionable and the characters must come to terms with their own nightmares in order to see the truth for what it really is. A fascinating read, this novel does lack a definitive ending leading readers to make their own minds up as to what happens. Very mysterious at times, this is an enjoyable read about a main character that you will hate and despise but still feel sorry for.
December 13, 2021
The central character is an arrogant, self-obsessed, coke-snorting Toronto lawyer who has a dim view of yokels (not his word) who populate small towns in mid-northern Ontario.
He also has a dim view of himself (which turns out to be accurate) and his client, a teacher who is charged with the murder of two teenage girls, by sending them to watery graves in a lake.
He has a difficult time with his legal bosses, a couple of unethical blow-hards back in TO. He’s not fond of his opposing legal counsel either or himself for that matter.
Pyper is a good writer but this book is so dense with sub-plot and examinations of conscience (his own and other people’s) that is somewhat cumbersome.
The suspect is a mess and the lawyer becomes one.
The book is a mixture of crime, legal drama (although not so much drama as messing around,) self-absorption, and mental illness (with aspects of horror).
The lawyer, Bartholomew Crane, is connected to the location of the current murders from his past summers in the area. Those memories are not pleasant. He has his own terror of lakes.
Characterization, observation, and description are all strong.
I did not skip sections I thought were tiresome, overwrought, or uninteresting (and, yes, those are there) but the characters believed them and that’s the most important thing.
The book has been called a thriller but it’s not.
It meanders too much for that.
But it is an engrossing tale of a man losing his grip.
He also has a dim view of himself (which turns out to be accurate) and his client, a teacher who is charged with the murder of two teenage girls, by sending them to watery graves in a lake.
He has a difficult time with his legal bosses, a couple of unethical blow-hards back in TO. He’s not fond of his opposing legal counsel either or himself for that matter.
Pyper is a good writer but this book is so dense with sub-plot and examinations of conscience (his own and other people’s) that is somewhat cumbersome.
The suspect is a mess and the lawyer becomes one.
The book is a mixture of crime, legal drama (although not so much drama as messing around,) self-absorption, and mental illness (with aspects of horror).
The lawyer, Bartholomew Crane, is connected to the location of the current murders from his past summers in the area. Those memories are not pleasant. He has his own terror of lakes.
Characterization, observation, and description are all strong.
I did not skip sections I thought were tiresome, overwrought, or uninteresting (and, yes, those are there) but the characters believed them and that’s the most important thing.
The book has been called a thriller but it’s not.
It meanders too much for that.
But it is an engrossing tale of a man losing his grip.
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