We’re thrilled to be able to share with you an excerpt from Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon, courtesy of William Morrow publishers! Reardon will be visiting Mystery Lovers Bookshop this Saturday, November 21st for a Coffee & Crime discussion.
“Finding Jake is compelling psychological suspense — but also so much more. A journey into the depths of a parent’s worst nightmare, it is at turns heartbreaking, surprising, devastating, hopeful… I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time to come.” — Alison Gaylin, USA Today bestselling author of Stay With Me
Prologue
My name is Simon Connolly. You may have heard of my son, Jake. Most people have, but they don’t know him. Not really.
As for me, they don’t know me, either. I’m not even sure why I’m still here. I can barely stand up, let alone venture beyond the front door. If I let such a simple effort beat me, I’m not sure what’s left.
As I step outside, the sun warms the too-tight skin of my face. Although the air is gentle, inviting, the season has not changed. It remains the bleakest winter imaginable and the toes of my New Balance push dried leaves across the pavement. Each sound stirring memories too fresh to accept.
So much has happened that I struggle to envision the next day, the next hour even. But going to the mailbox draws my focus to a pinpoint intensity and gives me purpose. Neither necessity nor curiosity provides the motivation. On the contrary, my driving force is a last desperate attempt to embrace banality. Get the mail, I tell myself, like before.
I never could have imagined that an oversize purple envelope, resting in that box, could contain such a bright glimmer of hope. I don’t even notice it until I am back inside; but, when I do see it, when my eyes focus and I read the name written on the front in young, bubbly script, my heart stutters. It is addressed to my son.
Maybe someone out there knows him better than I thought.
Chapter 1
Jake: Eight Months Before His Birth
It all started with a fateful decision and the most wonderful news of my life, not necessarily in that order. On a gray day in late February, the kind of day that makes everyone wish Christmas lights still hung from their neighbors’ tree branches, my wife called me at my office.
“I took it,” she said.
I knew that by “it” she meant a pregnancy test. In the movies, the wife always calls saying I have to tell you something, brace yourself. In reality, my wife and I had been married for five years, and engaged for three before that. I’m not saying that I was so in tune with her womanly cycle that I knew she was late before she did. What I am saying is that there is much less surprise when it comes to married couples’ privates than the movies like to admit.
“And,” I said.
“Don’t sound so excited.” She laughed.
I cleared my throat and tried again in my effortless deadpan. “I feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest.”
“Cliché.” She laughed even harder.
Only one person, my wife, knew I wanted to be a writer. An English minor in college, she felt compelled to critique me on occasion, but she was always unflaggingly supportive of this hidden dream of mine. She’d buy me “How to” writing books and fancy fountain-type pens for Valentine’s Day.
[bctt tweet=”Read an excerpt of Finding Jake by @Reardon_author!”]
“Caught again.”
“Look, not by phone. Let’s go get some lunch.”
“Sure.” I really just wanted to know if I was going to be a dad, but the suggestion of lunch pretty much clued me in on what I expected to be good news. “Where?”
“Fancy. How about Blue Coast? Noon?”
“I’ll meet you at the restaurant. Love you.”
“I love you, too, Simon. And I’m pregnant.” She hung up.
I wanted to call her right back, to laugh and talk too loudly about the news, but I knew that wasn’t how this had to work. My wife had an agenda. Not in a bad way, just a very deliberate way. This monumental news must be celebrated with a lavish meal and discussed in hushed tones while surrounded by opulence. This was not meant in a showy manner, more like an artist applying color to a canvas. She was painting our memory and I was all for it.
Blue Coast was about as hip a restaurant as Wilmington, Delaware, could support. Although it would be lost in the midrange mediocrity of a city like New York or Chicago, it tried its hardest and rose above the mom-and-pop Italian places and the vanilla chain restaurants that most of Delaware favored. Instead, Blue Coast had that not-quite- Wilmington look with its minimalist architecture and deep, rich, but subtle colors. Soft but modern alternative music piped through the hidden speakers and men and women in business suits sat at two-tops, some leaning forward and whispering intimately about love or money, others leaning back and scoping out the room to see who was who and who wasn’t…
This excerpt published here with permission of William Morrow.
Click here for more information on Finding Jake…
From the Publisher: "In this “smart, irreverent secret history” (Stewart O’Nan) Sewickley set novel by highly praised Pittsburgh native author Anna Read more
From the Publisher: "In his debut collection of nonfiction, Jim Daniels writes about trees, backyard swing sets, above-ground swimming pools, Read more
From the Publisher: "In 1958, a midwestern family was uprooted from Canton, Ohio to Bukavu in the Belgian Congo during Read more
From the Publisher: "It’s Anny’ s first day of middle school and, after years of being homeschooled, her first day Read more
ALL SKATE: True Stories from Middle Life is a series of musings from one mid-life woman, wife, and mother on what Read more
"Thom Palmer’s richly imagined first novel offers a hilarious yet bittersweet examination of food, art, and love..." From the Publisher: "When Read more
"A beautiful, poetic, ethereal read, The Shoemaker is the story of a great-grandfather and great-grandson connected by blood and by Read more
About the Author: Israel Centeno was born in 1958 in Caracas, Venezuela, and currently lives in Pittsburgh, he is a Read more
“I loved this book! Couldn’t put it down and neither will young readers. Girl power at its finest.” —Sharon G. Read more
"To those of us who have always suspected that our cats understand our words more than they let on, The Read more
From the Publisher: "When her father pulls her out of high school to care for her invalid mother and little Read more
“Ask the Wide World is not just a story but a journey of independent thinking and learning. It encourages children Read more
From the Publisher: "J.New Books proudly presents How to Live Like Li Po in Pittsburgh, the first-ever essay collection by acclaimed Read more
A lyrical and heartfelt tribute from a parent to their “everything,” their child. From the Publisher: "Following a parent and Read more
Could her Twitter Crush be her Prince Charming? From the Publisher: "A whirlwind romance. A heart-thumping new start. Widowed and Read more
"Welcome to Christmastime at Port Mariette, where friendship, faith, and second chance romance weave together to transform a small town." Read more
Littsburgh has always been a “nights and weekends” passion project, ever since we started the site back in 2015. We Read more
"One doctor. One patient. One terrible lie." From the Publisher: "I used to have it all. My ex-boyfriend and I Read more
"Life on the streets is hard but it's deadly when a young woman battles addiction." From the Publisher: "Where is Read more
One impulsive decision changes the lives of two lifelong friends forever in a powerful novel of suspense by the USA Today bestselling Read more
