Two If by Sea

January 4, 2016
Mitchard’s (The Deep End of the Ocean) latest combines elements of science fiction and suspense with a heartfelt meditation on family and grief, to mixed results. When a tsunami devastates the Australian coast, Frank Mercy loses his pregnant wife and her entire extended family in the span of a few moments. Bottling up his grief, he reports for duty as a first responder and pulls a three-year-old boy named Ian from a half-submerged van. Frank feels strangely compelled to take him under his wing, and the pair flee Brisbane for Frank’s family’s horse farm in Wisconsin. It’s soon apparent that Ian is special: he can speak to animals in a way that calms even the most skittish horses, and he can convince people to do whatever he wants (which, since he’s three, generally means buying him sweets and toys). As Frank and Ian’s bond becomes stronger, both begin to heal, but just as they become comfortable, figures from Ian’s past catch up to him, and his mysterious origins become clearer, as does the danger he’s in. Mitchard’s usual strong characters and emotionally resonant prose are evident here, but a few predictable twists and a shoehorned-in love interest drag things down. This won’t grab new readers, and longtime fans may feel frustrated by the change of style and pace. Agent: Jane Gelfman, Gelfman Schneider.

December 15, 2015
After losing his wife and unborn son in a tsunami in Australia, an expat horse trainer adopts a psychic 3-year-old. As Mitchard's (Second Nature: A Love Story, 2011, etc.) latest novel opens, a killer wave hits Brisbane. Among the victims are ex-cop Frank Mercy's pregnant wife and almost her entire extended family. Dazed and grief-stricken, Frank joins the volunteer rescue efforts the next day, coming to the aid of a woman and two small boys in a van that is half underwater. He plucks out the littler child, but before he can get to the others, the vehicle is swept away. When the devastated Frank returns to his family's horse farm in Wisconsin a few weeks later, he takes the components of an unexpected new life: the boy (whom he has not bothered to legally adopt), a huge horse named Glory Bee, and a young Irish groom. By this time he's learned that the boy he named Ian, who rarely speaks, has a telepathic gift--he can enter the minds of enraged people and make them calm down and be nice. Animals, too, as Frank sees when they descend into the cargo hold of their international flight, where Glory Bee and other zoo and domestic animals are going wild from the turbulent ride. "The boy had to jump back after the first time he touched Glory Bee's leg through the...wooden slats of the makeshift stall....She was roaring, cantering in place. But the second time Ian touched her, she stopped, and if she were a woman, Frank believed he would have seen her stand there, sobbing." Frank recognizes the possibility that Ian's power could easily be used for evil--and soon enough, it becomes clear that very bad people are hunting him down, murdering those who get in their way. Meanwhile, Frank meets another woman, an equestrian psychiatrist who asks him to train her and her horse for the Olympics. As his heart begins to heal, he faces the challenge of protecting Ian from the mounting threat. A troubled protagonist, beset by disaster and malefaction, is touched by magic as he develops new emotional connections.

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December 15, 2015
The author of The Deep End of the Ocean (1996) returns with a gripping new family drama. Former police officer Frank Mercy becomes a widowerin Australia after a devastating tsunami wreaks havoc on Brisbane. Shell-shocked at the loss of his wife and unborn child, Frank joins the rescue effort and saves a three-year-old boy from a van just before the boy's brother and caretaker are swept away in the flooding. Frank immediately bonds with the mute child, whom he starts to call Ian, and impulsively decides not to turn him in to aid workers. Instead, Frank has a friend forge papers for Ian and takes him back to his family farm in Wisconsin, unable to shake the feeling that Ian is in danger somehow. When Ian finally begins to speak, Frank discovers he has an extraordinary ability. Frank's instincts are proven correct when he discovers a mysterious group of criminals have followed him from Australia, intent on taking Ian. Mitchard deftly weaves together domestic drama with taut suspense as she builds to a heart-stopping climax.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Mitchard explores new territory in this unusual and suspenseful tale, which will be heralded by a many-platformed marketing and promotional campaign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2015

Mitchard returns with another heartbreaker, which opens with American expat Frank Mercy losing his wife and all her family in Brisbane's Christmas Eve "inland tsunami." During the flooding, he's managed to rescue a little boy named Ian and breaks the rules by taking him back to his family home in America's Midwest. But he's aware that a sinister bunch of people are edging in, eager to take Ian away. Will he and new love Claudia be able to rescue the child?

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