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We Got Him
"Elizabeth Searle's WE GOT HIM is an ingeniously plotted, suspenseful novel written in blood, mother's milk, and the unintended consequence of rage. It is the story of one family's inherited flaws, harbored guilts, and obsessive desires, whether for a child, a parent, or a second chance to do the elusive right thing. Powerfully worked against the unfolding events of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Elizabeth Searle's taut drama of a young, pregnant stepmother and her troubled stepson is a narrative tour de force, interweaving public and private acts of terror with the redemptive, but ever-fragile, forces of love."—Melissa Pritchard
- GenresAudiobook
Audible Audio
Published October 6, 2022
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About the author
Elizabeth Searle
15 books21 followersElizabeth Searle is the author of two works of theater and four books of fiction: Celebrities In Disgrace, a novella and stories; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an American Library Association Book Award; My Body To You, a story collection that won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize; and a forthcoming novel, Girl Held In Home (2011). The New York Times Book Review called her novella Celebrities In Disgrace "a miniature masterpiece."
Elizabeth Searle's and Michael Teoli's Rock Opera, Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera - as well as her and Abigail Al-Doory Cross' original opera, Tonya & Nancy: The Opera have drawn worldwide media attention. In May, 2006, at the American Reperatory Theater's "new space for new works," Tufts Music premiered the opera, which is based on the infamous Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan ice scandal. The opera drew coverage from - among other media outlets - the Associated Press, ESPN Hollywood, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The London Times, The Daily Show and National Public Radio.
Searle won the 2010 Boston Literary Death Match and the 2000 Lawrence Foundation Fiction Prize. She received her MFA from Brown University, and has taught fiction writing at Brown, Emerson College, Bennington MFA, Stonecoast MFA, and the University of Massachusetts (Visiting Writer, 2007-08). Searle has also served for over a decade on the Executive Board of PEN/New England and founded the Erotic PEN readings.
Searle lives with her husband and son in Arlington, MA.
Elizabeth Searle's and Michael Teoli's Rock Opera, Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera - as well as her and Abigail Al-Doory Cross' original opera, Tonya & Nancy: The Opera have drawn worldwide media attention. In May, 2006, at the American Reperatory Theater's "new space for new works," Tufts Music premiered the opera, which is based on the infamous Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan ice scandal. The opera drew coverage from - among other media outlets - the Associated Press, ESPN Hollywood, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The London Times, The Daily Show and National Public Radio.
Searle won the 2010 Boston Literary Death Match and the 2000 Lawrence Foundation Fiction Prize. She received her MFA from Brown University, and has taught fiction writing at Brown, Emerson College, Bennington MFA, Stonecoast MFA, and the University of Massachusetts (Visiting Writer, 2007-08). Searle has also served for over a decade on the Executive Board of PEN/New England and founded the Erotic PEN readings.
Searle lives with her husband and son in Arlington, MA.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 5, 2017
Elizabeth Searle’s fiction always takes off right from the first page, and this book is no exception. Immediately we are thrown into the high tension of the locked-down city of Boston on the night of the hunt for the Marathon bomber. At the same time, we enter the complexities of a longtime marriage. The narrative shifts between Sarah, a loving, sometimes secretive wife thrown into premature labor for a baby she has obsessively desired, and Paul, her older, steadier husband, who both longs for and fears the impending birth. The wild card in the mix is Paul’s 19-year-old son PJ, who bursts back into Sarah’s and Paul’s life on the day of the manhunt — and who happens to resemble the blurred TV photos of the younger Boston bombing suspect.
PJ is eventually detained by police, which leads to an unexpected reunion with his estranged father. Underlying the family tensions are the secrets PJ shares with Sarah. Desperate for attention and resentful of the coming baby, PJ has been pushing limits with his stepmother, who was all too vulnerable to PJ’s own neediness during the long spate of infertility treatments before her pregnancy. The novel’s bold mix of intimate, sometimes shocking family drama plays out powerfully against the national drama of the intense manhunt.
While the premise of the novel is dark, the narrative is sparked by wit and a sharp-eyed, playful cognizance of our pop culture and tabloid times. Suffused with a sense of menace, it is also enriched by vivid deeply sensual descriptions of the primal forces of life: sexual attraction — including both forbidden desires and stable, deep-rooted marital love — as well as the visceral process of birth itself.
WE GOT HIM boldly combines a larger-than-life news story with an intense and minutely observed marital drama. In Searle's strikingly poetic prose, both sides of the story come alive with suspense and poignancy.
PJ is eventually detained by police, which leads to an unexpected reunion with his estranged father. Underlying the family tensions are the secrets PJ shares with Sarah. Desperate for attention and resentful of the coming baby, PJ has been pushing limits with his stepmother, who was all too vulnerable to PJ’s own neediness during the long spate of infertility treatments before her pregnancy. The novel’s bold mix of intimate, sometimes shocking family drama plays out powerfully against the national drama of the intense manhunt.
While the premise of the novel is dark, the narrative is sparked by wit and a sharp-eyed, playful cognizance of our pop culture and tabloid times. Suffused with a sense of menace, it is also enriched by vivid deeply sensual descriptions of the primal forces of life: sexual attraction — including both forbidden desires and stable, deep-rooted marital love — as well as the visceral process of birth itself.
WE GOT HIM boldly combines a larger-than-life news story with an intense and minutely observed marital drama. In Searle's strikingly poetic prose, both sides of the story come alive with suspense and poignancy.
February 7, 2017
I loved Elizabeth Searle's new novel, WE GOT HIM, which beautifully parallels the marathon bombing and search for the bombers with the story of an Arlington couple undergoing the premature birth of their hard-won baby. Searle may understand less about running than she does about sex, fertility workups and treatments, lost teenagers and love, but I couldn't put it down and enjoyed the Faulknerian play and ambition, a la AS I LAY DYING, here transformed to as I lay birthing.
March 14, 2017
Set during the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing, We Got Him is the fast-paced story of pregnant Sarah and her husband Paul. The story explores the intricacies of family dynamics, especially between parents and their children.
Sarah and Paul both have issues with their own parents, alive or dead, and this is passed on to the next generation. Paul’s relationship with his son P.J. is less than stellar due to their lack of communication, and Sarah’s role as step-mom leads P.J. to obsess over her. Both Sarah and Paul are worried that their failure to raise P.J. dooms their unborn child. Already, they feel guilty that their actions in the first scene of the book lead to premature labor.
The backdrop of the bombing creates a feeling of tension that escalates through the tumbling action, with flashbacks heightening the confusion caused by Sarah’s secret and P.J.’s uncanny resemblance to the younger bomber.
I did have a few issues with the book, particularly its overuse of fragments and semicolons, but my biggest concern is the book’s strange focus on sex. While some of the sex scenes were pivotal to the plot, some of the references were just uncomfortable (giving birth is not the time to think about doggy-style, and please don’t talk about sex when describing a man peeing).
Despite this, We Got Him is good for readers who like stories full of tension, suspense, and emotional turmoil.
Sarah and Paul both have issues with their own parents, alive or dead, and this is passed on to the next generation. Paul’s relationship with his son P.J. is less than stellar due to their lack of communication, and Sarah’s role as step-mom leads P.J. to obsess over her. Both Sarah and Paul are worried that their failure to raise P.J. dooms their unborn child. Already, they feel guilty that their actions in the first scene of the book lead to premature labor.
The backdrop of the bombing creates a feeling of tension that escalates through the tumbling action, with flashbacks heightening the confusion caused by Sarah’s secret and P.J.’s uncanny resemblance to the younger bomber.
I did have a few issues with the book, particularly its overuse of fragments and semicolons, but my biggest concern is the book’s strange focus on sex. While some of the sex scenes were pivotal to the plot, some of the references were just uncomfortable (giving birth is not the time to think about doggy-style, and please don’t talk about sex when describing a man peeing).
Despite this, We Got Him is good for readers who like stories full of tension, suspense, and emotional turmoil.
February 4, 2021
An interesting concept of a story. We are thrown right off the bat into the world of Sarah who is finally in her third trimester of pregnancy after desperately wanting a baby for so long and her troubled step-son PJ all happening simultaneously to the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers.
The story is fast-paced and very suspenseful, however it is very difficult to follow because the reader is constantly being thrown back and forth between the past and the present without much clarity as to where we are in time at any given place in the story. I also never got to really know the characters as people, what makes them tick, their deepest thoughts, or much of their life story.
The book throws us many intertwined twists and turns, most of them left open-ended and the reader left hanging. We never find out what’s wrong with PJ for example. Overall this book could’ve been a decent short story but instead it reads like a short story with 150 pages of filler. Unfortunately it was a struggle for me to finish.
The story is fast-paced and very suspenseful, however it is very difficult to follow because the reader is constantly being thrown back and forth between the past and the present without much clarity as to where we are in time at any given place in the story. I also never got to really know the characters as people, what makes them tick, their deepest thoughts, or much of their life story.
The book throws us many intertwined twists and turns, most of them left open-ended and the reader left hanging. We never find out what’s wrong with PJ for example. Overall this book could’ve been a decent short story but instead it reads like a short story with 150 pages of filler. Unfortunately it was a struggle for me to finish.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews