Four years later, the 60s were drawing to a close. No one ever charged Ray with the murders in the campgrounds, but there was one cop determined to make him pay. Ray figured he was in the clear. Tim and Jennifer thought the worst was behind them, that the horrors were all in the past. They were wrong. The worst was yet to come.

In "The Lost" the murder happens in the beginning, and we follow the aftermath and the investigation rather than in his other novels where we follow everyone up to the climax of the murder. Many have called this book "Shocking" I really didn't find it overly shocking. Death by gun is much less horrifying to me than what Ketchum did in "Off-season" or some of his other works.

Short Plot Synopsis: Ray, Tim and Jennifer, a group of local looser teens are out in the woods camping when they run across some other campers - Ray's true mental problems come bubbling to the surface. Skip to 4 years later and the kids dealing with what they saw that night, the sheriff still trying to find proof that it was Ray, and several new girls who are starting to look more and more like potential victims for round 2 of "Ray proves his manhood."

At times this feels as though Ketchum was trying to write a period piece from the 60's, unfortunately it never sticks with the reader so apart from some random references, this story could have taken place in a small town anywhere at just about any time. Ray is obviously carefully crafted after the serial killer Charles Schmid down to the stuffed shoes, the outrageous tales, and the car obsession. In fact I've discovered that almost all of Ketchum's novels are based on either a real serial killer or the tall tales of a serial killer (Off Season for example). This book is well written, but I would call it more of a crime drama than a horror novel. Sure the bad guy was a smug little weasel, but most of the killings are by gun and aren't overly graphic.

My final opinion is that though this book is good, it appears to be marketed to the wrong crowd (the Horror crew) who although they will like it, they won't like it as much as the Crime/Thriller crew. The middle drags quite a bit, especially since there really wasn't a character that I really identified with. The good guys were realistic but at the same time, almost all of Ketchum's cops are starting to seem like the same character to me. This was neither as shocking nor as engaging as "The Girl Next Door" if you go into this book thinking that's what you are getting, you will be severely disappointed. It's a good book on it's own, just not one of Ketchum's personal bests.