UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · FATHERS AND SONS
John Hart
Also known as: JOHN HART
I've heard it said that jail stinks of despair.
— from The King of Lies, 2006
Most acclaimed

The Last Child
> Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is---confident in a way that he can never fully explain. [More]

Down River
2007
Adam Chase has spent the last five years in New York trying to wipe out the memory of his family's rejection. Until a phone call from his best friend Summons him back to Red Water Farm. When he left North Carolina, Adam left for good. Now he has no choice but to return - and being remembered as a murderer doesn't help. Within hours of arriving, Adam is beaten up, accosted and has to face the hostility of those closest to him, including Grace, the young woman he cannot forget. Nothing has changed. And then people start turning up dead. For a man only just acquitted of murder, Adam's homecoming does not go well. And he has a dark streaks, a history of violence. Everyone doubts. No one trusts him. And as the past threatnes to overshadow the present, Adam becomes the prime suspect for the new murders. He alone can clear his name.

Redemption road
"Over 2 million copies of his books in print. The first and only author to win back-to-back Edgars for Best Novel. Every book a New York Times bestseller. Now after five years, John Hart is back with a stunning literary thriller. Imagine: A boy with a gun waits for the man who killed his mother. A troubled detective confronts her past in the aftermath of a brutal shooting. After thirteen years in prison, a good cop walks free. But for how long? And deep in the forest, on the altar of an abandoned church, the unthinkable has just happened... This is a town on the brink. This is a road with no mercy. Since his debut bestseller, The King of Lies, reviewers across the country have heaped praise on John Hart, comparing his writing to that of Pat Conroy, Cormac McCarthy and Scott Turow. With each novel Hart has climbed higher on the New York Times Bestseller list, with his last two books - The Last Child and Iron House - landing squarely in the top ten. His masterful writing and assured evocation of place have won readers around the world and earned history's only consecutive Edgar Awards for Best Novel. After five years, John Hart returns with Redemption Road, his most powerful story yet"--