Special illustrated signature page personally signed by the authorĭeluxe oversized trim size (7”x10” approx.) Limited to only 550 signed and hand-numbered copies Special Oversized Signed Limited Hardcover Edition: Grim stuff, but you can be sure there's someone in The Listener who embodies all the good qualities of the human kind who will move Heaven and Earth to find the children…though he's probably the last person anyone would think of as a "hero." And these people, I think, are likely the kind who would kidnap two children and not have much concern whether the kids lived or died. I understand we all enjoy reading about vampires, werewolves, ghoulies, and other creatures of the night, but the most fearsome and deadly monster is the human being…and I believe I have created two of the most fearsome and horrific human beings in The Listener that you could ever fear to meet.
The Listener isn't exactly supernatural, though there is a "strange" element. It got to be so bad that the New York Times began running a box at the top of the front page listing who had been kidnapped, and among those victims, which ones had been returned to their families. This is a book I've been wanting to write for several years, since I discovered what an epidemic (a tragic epidemic, at that) kidnapping became during the desperation of the Great Depression. The Listener is about the kidnapping of two children and is set in New Orleans in 1934. This gritty depression-era crime thriller is a complex tale enriched by powerfully observed social commentary and hints of the supernatural, and it represents Robert McCammon writing at the very top of his game. One day, Curtis Mayhew's special talent allows him to overhear a child's cry for help ( THIS MAN IN THE CAR HE'S GOT A GUN), which draws him into the dangerous world of Partlow and LaFrance. and he can sometimes hear things that aren't spoken aloud.
What those friends don't know is that Curtis has a special talent for listening. In a different part of town, Curtis Mayhew, a young black man who works as a redcap for the Union Railroad Station, has a reputation for mending quarrels and misunderstandings among his friends. Joining together they leave their small time confidence scams behind to attempt an elaborate kidnapping-for-ransom scheme in New Orleans. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot. In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money.
Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities.
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