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Cryer's Cross

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About The Book

Kendall loves her life in small town Cryer¹s Cross, Montana, but she also longs for something more. She knows the chances of going to school in New York are small, but she's not the type to give up easily. Even though it will mean leaving Nico, the world's sweetest boyfriend, behind.

But when Cryer's Cross is rocked by unspeakable tragedy, Kendall shoves her dreams aside and focuses on just one goal: help find her missing friends. Even if it means spending time with the one boy she shouldn't get close to... the one boy who makes her question everything she feels for Nico.

Determined to help and to stay true to the boy she's always loved, Kendall keeps up the search--and stumbles upon some frightening local history. She knows she can't stop digging, but Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried....

Excerpt

Cryer’s Cross ONE
Everything changes when Tiffany Quinn disappears.

Of the 212 residents of Cryer’s Cross, Montana, 178 join Sheriff Greenwood in a search that lasts several days from sunup to after dark. School is closed, all the students taking part, searching roads and farms, trudging through pastures of cattle and horses, through sections of newly planted potatoes, barley, wheat. Up to the foothills and back along the woods. They travel in groups of two or three, some nervous, some crying, some resolute. Shouting to the other groups now and then so nobody else goes missing—cell phones aren’t much good out here. Cryer’s Cross is a dead spot.

After five days there is still no trace of Tiffany Quinn. She is gone, impossibly. Impossibly, because to imagine that there has been foul play here in the humble town of Cryer’s Cross is laughable, and to imagine that sweet ninth-grade bookworm running away, going off on her own . . . It’s all so impossible.

But gone she is.

Still, they search.

Kendall Fletcher flinches and casts regular glances behind her out of habit. Scared about the younger girl’s disappearance, true, but also unsettled by this shake-up in her schedule. The final week of her junior year canceled—everything left unfinished, open ended. Her whole routine is off.

She walks the hundreds of acres of her parents’ farm and beyond into the woods, wearily counting her steps through the potatoes and grain fields and trees. Counting, always counting something.

Her best friend, Nico Cruz, walks next to her.

Boyfriend, he’d say.

But boyfriend means commitment, and commitments that she can’t keep tend to make Kendall feel prickly. “Come on,” she says. “Let’s run.”

She takes off through the field, and Nico follows. They pass an imaginary soccer ball between the rows, occasionally yelling out “Tiffany!” Once, after they cross over to Nico’s family’s land, they see a big brown lump where the barley field meets the gravel road, but it’s not Tiffany. Just a road-killed deer.

She’s not here. She’s not anywhere.

They take a break under a tree at the edge of the farm as rain starts to fall. Kendall stares and counts the drops as they hit the gray dirt, faster and faster.

Nico talks, but Kendall isn’t listening. She needs to get to a hundred drops before she can allow herself to stop.

Eventually the search ends. Nothing more can be done locally except by professionals now. It’s prime planting season. Farmers have chores, and students do too. Plus jobs, if they work in town or for one of the farmers or ranchers. Life has to go on.

It’s a long, hot summer full of hard work for Kendall. For everyone. After a month or two, people stop talking about Tiffany Quinn.

About The Author

Photograph © Ryan Nicholson Photography

Lisa McMann lives in Arizona. She is married to fellow writer and musician, Matt McMann, and they have two adult children. Her son is an artist named Kilian McMann and her daughter is an actor, Kennedy McMann. Lisa is the New York Times bestselling author of over two dozen books for young adults and children. So far she has written in genres including paranormal, realistic, dystopian, and fantasy. Some of her most well-known books are The Unwanteds series for middle grade readers and the Wake trilogy for young adults. Check out Lisa's website at LisaMcMann.com, learn more about The Unwanteds Series at UnwantedsSeries.com, and be sure to say hi on Instagram or Twitter (@Lisa_McMann), or Facebook (Facebook.com/McMannFan).

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (February 8, 2011)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781416994817
  • Grades: 9 and up
  • Ages: 14 - 99
  • Lexile ® HL640L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®

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Raves and Reviews

"A brilliant, engaging, scary piece of fiction. Every word had me sliding closer to the edge of my seat and gripping the cover tighter and tighter. There are books in the world that make you question your reality and the things that go bump in the night--this is one of them." --Heather Brewer, New York Times bestselling author of The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod

Cryer's Cross is an eerie, gripping, totally addictive, breathtaking whirl of a book with an ending that left me haunted for days. Lisa McMann has done it again--this book is unputdownable!”
--Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of THE IMMORTALS series.

"Cryer's Cross is creepy, mysterious, and completely absorbing. The intimacy of McMann's small town setting makes this novel especially gripping--and foreboding. Kendall is an excellent protagonist, and her struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder not only add a whole new fascinating dimension to the story, but the way McMann uses it to uncover a vital clue to the mystery of disappearances in Cryer's Cross is brilliant. Cryer's Cross is peppered with snatches of narrative from the force behind the disappearances, which gives the story extra urgency and suspense, so by the final chapters, you'll hardly be able to keep still. Tragic, emotional, sometimes humorous, and full of tension, Cryer's Cross is one stand-out novel and possibly Lisa McMann's best book yet."
--The Compulsive Reader (thecompulsivereader.com)

"This book was so, so, so good! [It's] creepy, addicting and the tension builds page by page. I also love the fact that the story concept is completely original! There isn't a werewolf or a vampire to be found in this book :) Go get it! You won't be disappointed!"
--Jennifer, latebloomeronline.com

"Wow. Just wow. It was absolutely haunting.
I have never read anything that focused around OCD. It was interesting to be in the mind of someone who has it and to know what they are feeling and thinking. Having to obsess over such things must be extremely stressful and [McMann] portrays that beautifully.
I think the story was fantastic. It was very well put together. It was so creepy! Adding the OCD issue made it even more intriguing. I swear at some points of the books I really had goosebumps."
--Missy @ tworeadersreviews.blogspot.com

"Lisa McMann, the bestselling author of the Wake trilogy, brings us another exciting thriller with CRYER'S CROSS. As always, she grabs a hold of her readers in the first paragraph and propels them through the pages with trepidation, curiosity and foreboding. Scattered between chapters are short, cryptic messages from an unknown source, adding to the mystery and suspense. In this story, McMann tackles the complications of OCD, and she does so with grace and empathy; one can't help but feel Kendall's frustrations as she attempts to deal with her difficult and confusing disorder. Kendall, of course, is the book's most fascinating character, though others add intrigue as well, including the dark and sullen new boy at school.

CRYER'S CROSS is an exciting page-turner of a thriller that fans will not want to see end, leaving them impatiently waiting for McMann's next book. "

--teenreads.com

Awards and Honors

  • ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
  • Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award
  • Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title
  • ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults - Top Ten

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More books from this author: Lisa McMann