The Last Kid Left

April 3, 2017
When Martin Krug, chief of the Eagle Mount, N.J., PD and the hero of Baldwin’s well-crafted mystery, responds to an automobile accident call, he doesn’t expect to find 20-year-old Nick Toussaint Jr. in the driver’s seat with two dead bodies in the trunk. Nick confesses to the murders, but the sheriff has his doubts. Since the murders happened at the victims’ house in Claymore, N.H., Krug has no jurisdiction. When Krug retires a few days later, he decides to join the Claymore public defender in charge of proving Nick’s innocence. The suspicious connection between Claymore’s sheriff and Nick—namely, that the sheriff’s daughter, Emily, is Nick’s girlfriend—is just the beginning of a newsworthy scandal, to which the leaking on the internet of nude photos of Emily, meant to comfort Nick in jail, adds fuel. Baldwin (You Lost Me There) relegates the actual murder and investigation to the background, but readers who like plenty of character analysis in their crime fiction will be satisfied. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit.

April 1, 2017
A double murder leads to some ugly discoveries about a small New Hampshire town and internet-fueled gossip in Baldwin's ambitious second novel.Unlike his witty and relaxed memoir (Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, 2012), Baldwin's fiction strains for significance, and this one is even more overstuffed than its predecessor (You Lost Me There, 2010), with more plot and characters than the author's technical abilities can handle. Baldwin crafts strong back stories and emotional issues for Martin Krug, a cop on the verge of retirement headed for his second divorce, and Nick Toussaint, the troubled 20-year-old he plucks from a crashed car who promptly confesses to killing the two blood-stained corpses in the back seat. And Nick's 16-year-old truelove, Emily, subject to vicious cyberbullying and a controlling best friend, is the novel's most full-bodied and complex character, tougher than her fragile exterior suggests. But around these three mill too many people who drop in and out of the story too often to sustain readers' attention. Thelsa Mann, recently laid off from the Village Voice, is introduced early on and pointed in the direction of the hometown she shares with Nick and Emily, then disappears for more than 60 pages before arriving in New Hampshire to wander around obtaining a lot of thirdhand information--including a bombshell revelation about the motive behind the murders that is conveyed by a character we have just met, who heard it from someone who wasn't there. Baldwin several times employs this technique of initially doling out plot points via a non-eyewitness, thereby muffling the impact of the eventual, fuller account by an actual participant. He seems to be making a statement about the way misinformation is spread in our hyperconnected culture, and a few clever passages of text messages reinforce it, but on the whole it simply makes for a muddy narrative. Ruthless editing might have liberated an intriguing thesis and sharply drawn protagonists from 100 pages of extraneous material. As it stands, admirable but overreaching.

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June 15, 2017

Sixteen-year-old Emily Portis and 19-year-old Nick Toussaint are the children of two of the oldest families of a New Hampshire sea coast town--families still embroiled in a feud that goes back generations. Those old tensions reignite when Nick and Emily become boyfriend and girlfriend. And when Nick is caught in New Jersey after wrecking a car, with the bodies of a prominent town doctor and his wife in the trunk, leading to his arrest for murder, a local scandal ensues. Attempts to hush up events fall apart when a journalist posts nude photos Emily took for Nick on the Internet. Meanwhile, Martin Krug, the police chief who brought Nick back to New Hampshire, returns there to investigate the case on a hunch that Nick is innocent, a hunch that's vindicated. At its heart, this is the story of two teens who desperately want to believe that love can lift them above the circumstances of their lives while all around them the primeval and viral collide. VERDICT If The Scarlet Letter were reported by TMZ, the end result might have something of the flavor of Baldwin's (You Lost Me There) complexly plotted literary mystery. --Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017

The minute he saw Emily Portis, Nick Toussaint knew it was love. Though Nick, 19, is three years older than Emily, their feelings are strong. But when readers first meet Nick, it's clear that things have gone wrong. Nick, exhausted, drunk, and hoping to reach the Mexican border, is driving an SUV with two corpses in the back. But during a moment's inattention, the car crashes into a neon cowgirl sign in New Jersey. Now Nick and Emily, who's back in their hometown of Claymore, NH, have a lot of explaining to do. But Nick is set on taking the blame. Newly retired police chief Martin Krug is convinced that the young man is innocent. But Nick is sent to Claymore to be tried, where the sheriff, Emily's father, is willing to accept Nick's guilt. Krug, though, takes an investigative job to find out the truth. Meanwhile, a floundering journalist from Claymore realizes that returning to her old high school could give her the best scoop. This is an excessively complicated novel, with subplots involving Emily's nude photos and Nick's alcoholic mother, all of which may distance teen readers from the epic love story. But those who enjoy twisted tales will appreciate these side trips. VERDICT Just the thing for compulsive mystery lovers.-Diane Colson, formerly at City College, Gainesville, FL

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2017
It starts with a car crash when 19-year-old Nick runs into a roadside statue somewhere in New Jersey. When police arrive at the scene, they discover two dead bodies in the trunk of the car. Nick insists on confessing to their murder, and though the soon-to-retire sheriff, Martin, doesn't buy it, the boy is extradited to New Hampshire, where the murders occurred. The sheriff, now retired, goes to work for Nick's attorney as an investigator. Readers quickly learn Nick is in love with 16-year-old Emily, the sheriff's daughter; when compromising pictures of her are posted on the Internet, the case attracts national attention and becomes one of trial by publicity. But is Nick guilty? There are certainly elements of mystery to this character-driven novel, but they are overshadowed by backstory and psychological analyses of the many characterstoo many, perhaps, since they, and the numerous details the author includes, tend to retard the story's momentum. Nevertheless, the charactersespecially Martinare interesting enough to hold readers' attention to the end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)