Never Let Go

Toronto: Macmillan of Canada A Division of Canada Publishing Corporation BOOK:Corners, Boards Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Moderately Soiled; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Moderately Scuffed; Moderately Creased; Lightly Chipped; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. SUB-TITLE: The Tragedy of Kristy McFarlane. DESIGN BY: Brant Cowie/Artplus Ltd. JACKET PHOTOGRAPH: Simon Harworth. DESIGN: Brant Cowie/Artplus Ltd. CONTENTS: Acknowledgements; Preface 1. The Disappearance 2. The Street 3. A Short Visit Home 4. Kristy 5. Working Girl 6. Kristy 7. Sheila 8. Home and Away 9. A Child in Need of Protection 10. The Bucket 11. Montreal 12. Kristy 13. Losing Patience 14. Kristy 15. Molly 16. Disappearing Act 17. Golden Life 18. Dick Tracy 19. Kristy 20. Capture 21. Solo 22. H.M. The Queen versus Mark Richard Morgan 23. Day in Court 24. Sentence 25. February 11, 1987; Afterword. SYNOPSIS: On August 29, 1984, a fourteen-year-old high school student named Kristy McFarlane disappeared from the Toronto Eaton Centre. Seventy-two hours later, her worried mother, Sheila, was invited down to 52 Division's police station to pick up her daughter. Sheila was horrified to hear what Kristy had been doing those last few days; she had taken up with a fast-talking young pimp, been given drugs, seduced, and sent out onto the street to turn tricks. The episode was the beginning of a two-and-a-half year nightmare for mother and daughter as both Sheila and "the street" struggled to hold Kristy. The final tragedy of Kristy's death in February of 1987 was wholly unexpected. Never Let Go is Sheila's and Kristy's story, as seen by both women. Kristy's own accounts of her adventures on the streets of Toronto and Montreal make for fascinating reading; her dealings with her pimps, the attacks by angry "dates", her flight from various social agencies and the Juvenile Task Force officers, her friendships with other prostitutes, her many arrests, her understanding of the rules of "the game", her constant frustration with her determined mother, and above all, her love for her. Sheila's fierce love and her resolve to win her daughter back led her to patrol Toronto's "Track" areas nightly for weeks at a time, to risk being chased by pimps, to personally confront everyone who might have some idea as to Kristy's whereabouts. She finally succeeded in seeing Kristy's pimp sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment following Kristy's grudging agreement to testify at his trial. Never Let Go is a gritty view of how street society operates, and a revealing look at a level of society few outsiders understand. It is a compelling examination of one of the most disturbing problems of our time and moving testimony to a tremendous personal tragedy. Never Let Go will change your view of our city streets forever. Tom MacDonnell has worked as a broadcast journalist in Winnipeg, Halifax, and Toronto since 1974, primarily with CBC Radio. He has had a great many radio plays and documentaries broadcast and has occasionally contributed to such publications as Maclean's magazine and the Globe and Mail. His first play, Victory, was staged at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax in 1986. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Susan. This is his first book. - and - "I wouldn't even try to explain the total shock of being told in a police station at 2:00 a.m. that your child is a prostitute." On August 29, 1984, fourteen-year-old Kristy McFarlane disappeared from Toronto's largest shopping centre. When her mother, Sheila, was called to 52 Division police station seventy-two hours later, she learned that her daughter had been seduced by a young pimp, given drugs, and put out on the street to turn tricks. "You never forget your first date. You never forget... We went, and it was okay, I wasn't afraid of him. Then he drove me back, and I was at the corner of Jarvis and Wellesley again, and he had given me a hundred dollars." For the next two and a half years Sheila fought the toughest battle of her life to save her daughter from "the street" as Kristy continued to run: "I wasn't concerned whether I was having a good time or not. I was just living the way it came. I made my living, and when it was over, I'd have my normal life." Then everything changed. On February 11, 1987, Kristy's lifeless body was found in the stairwell of a downtown Toronto hotel. Never Let Go is the gritty and fascinating true story of Kristy and her mother, a testimony to their love for each other and especially to her mother's courage. It is also a shocking account of one of society's greatest urban problems, teen prostitution, told by a teenager who lived it for the last years of her short life.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.