Zero at the Bone

by Michael Cadnum

When eighteen-year-old Anita fails to return home from work, her parents and younger brother Cray try to understand and cope with her disappearance in a tense, frightening tale by the author of Taking It. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Michael Cadnum has had a number of jobs over the course of his life, including pick-and-shoveler for the York Archaeological Trust, in York, England, and substitute teacher in Oakland, California, but his true calling is writing. He is the author of thirty-five books, including the National Book Award finalist The Book of the Lion. His Calling Home and Breaking the Fall were both nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is a former Creative Writing Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. Also a poet, he has received several awards, including Poetry Northwest's Helen Bullis Prize and the Owl Creek Book Award. Michael lives in Albany, California, with his wife Sherina.

Reviews

[Diane]

Cray's older sister, Anita, doesn't come home from work one night. Now Cray and his family find themselves involved in a haunting search which probes not only her last movements, but any secrets which she might have hidden from them.

[Elizabeth Gibbs]

Frighteningly horrific story of Cray (a teenage boy) and his family as they cope with the disappearance of his sister Anita. Hauntingly real and unimaginable. By the end you wish you had never read to that page because there can only be one of two solutions that make sense. [Do not read if depressed!]

[Pat Newman]

An upper middle-class family struggles with the disappearance of their teenage daughter. What makes this young adult is the point of view -- the teenage son tells the story. Won the Macavity Award in 1992 - older title, but I thought the family members were well drawn and the story told simply and truthfully.

[Connie]

Missing teen, sibling relationships