Missing, Jonathan Valin
Missing, Jonathan Valin
List: $21.95 | Sale: $15.37
Club: $10.97

Missing

Author: Jonathan Valin

Narrator: Mark Peckham

Unabridged: 8 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/01/2013


Synopsis

Mason Greenleaf—good teacher, good friend, fond lover—vanishes from his Mount Adams home one hot summer afternoon, leaving a haunting mystery behind him. For his fellow teachers, former students, and friends, his disappearance is inexplicable and tragic. For his lover, Cindy Dorn, it is a cruel blow that shakes the very foundations of her world. She calls Harry Stoner for help. Soon after, Greenleaf turns up dead in a sleazy hotel. The police call it a suicide—Stoner believes there's more to the story. As Stoner delves into the apparent suicide, disturbing questions surface about Greenleaf's past, questions about his sexual life. Greenleaf was bisexual, after the brutal Lessing case of several years past, a case that led Stoner to cover up an act of deliberate murder, Harry is not eager to probe into another gay man's violent death. But he can't walk away from Cindy Dorn, a woman to whom he is undeniably drawn. For Harry, an investigation that starts as a matter of conscience rapidly turns into a test of character and, through Cindy, a confrontation with what has been missing in his own life.

About Jonathan Valin

Jonathan Valin is a mystery author best known for the Harry Stoner detective series. He won the Shamus Award for best mystery novel of 1989. After writing eleven Harry Stoner novels over a fourteen-year period, he took a break from mystery writing to help found Fi, a magazine of music criticism. He now works as an editor and reviewer for magazines.

About Mark Peckham

Mark Peckham is an actor and director based in Rhode Island. In addition to working with Trinity Rep, Virginia Stage Co., and many Boston-area theaters, he was the voice of Joseph Smith in the award-winning PBS documentary American Prophet with Gregory Peck.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill

Finishing this book made me sad. It is the last of the Harry Stoner mysteries, written a quarter century ago, and—although its author Jonathan Valin is still alive—it is doubtful that he will return from retirement with Harry’s twelfh adventure. That is a pity, for Valin is one of the finest writers......more

Goodreads review by Bill

I was lent a copy of a Jonathan Valin book in 1988 (I started keeping lists in 1984). I was deep into private eye fiction, looking for additions to Chandler and Macdonald, my favourites, and Valin's Dead Letter stood out as being 'up there'. I can't remember anything about it, didn't even remember t......more

Goodreads review by MYMY

I couldn’t wait to finish it. It felt like I was watching a movie that had a voice over telling me exactly what was happening at the moment. I wasn’t a fan.......more

Goodreads review by Tom

It's interesting to look back to the time when this book was written and remember what it was like when AIDS was new and so frightening and deadly. Harry Stoner is a likable character and the plot was decent. I'll have to get the next one......more

Goodreads review by Carol

This is an amazing series of books. I'm so sorry to have reached the end.......more


Quotes

“In his latest case, following Second Chance, Harry Stoner, the tough but soulful Cincinnati PI, discovers that detective work in the age of AIDS is a hard business…Stoner deals with a police force that has a history of harassing homosexuals. And he finds himself falling in love with his client…readers are left with an unexpected solution and an unusually affecting portrait of the victim and his times.” Publishers Weekly

“ The eleventh Stoner mystery is as thoughtful as any in the series. Though Harry solves the case, he misses the motives every step of the way. Each of the key characters acts and reacts logically but never stereotypically. Even the most open-minded among us are burdened with prejudices and preconceived attitudes. Stoner learns this lesson the hard way.” Booklist