Lost Lad

In the glorious summer of 1960, six pals from William Howitt Secondary Modern School in the hill top mining town of Heanor, decide to cycle up into the high Derbyshire hills. They have a great time. Everything goes well, until - they cycle out of the village of Litton, along a narrow country lane and speedily descend the 550ft steep drop into a deep wooded ravine which is called Water-cum-Jolly-Dale. Six boys were happily racing down the hill, but only five reach the bottom!In the following hours, the boys make a thorough search for their friend - in vain. Eventually the police are called in and make a careful professional search - in vain. Where is the lost lad?

Forty-three years pass and one of the original pals who has spent most of his adult life in the United States returns to England to re-open the search. An odyssey develops which takes many twists and turns around the lives of different men, some of whom can hardly recognise each other four decades on. An investigation which turns lives upside-down. A quest which eventually comes to a dramatic and stunning conclusion when we finally learn the devastating truth about - the Lost Lad.

This is an autobiographic, sometimes comic, sometimes erotic psychological thriller: a 'roller-coaster of emotions' from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness. Along the way, Narvel Annable, skilfully blending fact and fiction, reveals a secret history and vividly recreates the gritty realities of his youth on both sides of the Atlantic. A local story of long lost friendship and a Derbyshire travelogue which combines elements of folklore, legend and quirky crooked old men who inhabit the murky depths of a sleazy underworld. It is all set against the magnificent moody backdrop of a 'howling wilderness', spectacular ravines and lush green valleys. This entertaining and ingenious whodunit will take you through the recesses, nooks and crannies of a life, which, for many years, lay hidden behind the mask of a stern and respectable schoolmaster.

"I've never featured in a mystery thriller before. I've enjoyed every minute of it."

John Holmes, BBC Radio Nottingham.