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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copyright © A J Grayson 2017
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A J Grayson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008239367
Ebook Edition © February 2017 ISBN: 9780008239350
Version: 2017-04-08
For Rachael
I am not certain I may ever know, ever understand, that which makes death what it is and sorrow so sadly, desperately haunting. I am not sure what it is that lingers, once everything else is gone. But I know the boy, alive through all his torments, and perhaps that is enough. Perhaps we are not meant to know anything more cosmic than one child, one face, one set of hands. In them, I have found enough grief to encompass the whole of creation.
—Dr Pauline Lavrentis
Interview notes
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
The Boy in the Park, Stanza 1
Part One
San Francisco
Chapter 1. Tuesday
Chapter 2. Wednesday Morning
Chapter 3. The Boy in the Park, Stanza 2
Chapter 4. Wednesday Afternoon
Chapter 5. Taped Recording Cassette #014A – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 6. Thursday Lunchtime
Chapter 7. Friday
Chapter 8. Taped Recording Cassette #014B – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 9. Friday
Chapter 10. Saturday – Office of Lieutenant Brian Delvay
Chapter 11. Sunday
Chapter 12. Taped Recording Cassette #021C – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 13. Monday
Chapter 14. Monday Afternoon
Chapter 15. Taped Recording Cassette #021D – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 16. Monday Afternoon
Chapter 17. The Boy in the Park, Stanza 3
Chapter 18. Monday Evening
Redding
Chapter 19. Wednesday
Chapter 20. Thursday
Chapter 21. Taped Recording Cassette #033A – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 22. Thursday
Chapter 23. The Boy in the Park, Stanza 4
Chapter 24. Thursday Afternoon
Chapter 25. Thursday
Chapter 26. Thursday
Chapter 27. Taped Recording Cassette #041D – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 28. Thursday
Chapter 29. Thursday
Chapter 30. Thursday
Chapter 31. Thursday
Chapter 32. The Boy in the Park, Stanza 5
Chapter 33. Thursday – Nightfall
Part Two
The Farmhouse, 1974
Chapter 34. The Porch
Chapter 35. The Kitchen
Chapter 36. The Living Room
Chapter 37. The Kitchen
Chapter 38. The Living Room
Chapter 39. The Living Room
Chapter 40. Christmas Day – Two Weeks Later
The Schoolyard, 1975
Chapter 41. At School – Two Months Later
Chapter 42. The Schoolyard
Chapter 43. The Boy in the Park, Stanza 6
Part Three
Redding
Chapter 44. Thursday – Nightfall
Chapter 45. Thursday – Night-Time
Chapter 46. Taped Recording Cassette #057A – Interviewer: P. Lavrentis
Chapter 47. Thursday