The narrator of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones was a young girl named Susie Salmon. At the age of 14 she was raped and killed by her neighbor. It happened on a cold, snowy afternoon. After school, Susie took a shortcut through a cornfield to her home in Pennsylvania. That day, Mr. Harvey (a familiar but still unfamiliar face) was in the cornfield. He tells Susie about an underground hideout he had built and that really piqued Susie's curiosity. Mr. Harvey lures Susie into the hole and Susie quickly realizes it was a big mistake. Mr Harvey then raped and killed her. The next thing she knows, Susie was in heaven. Susie realizes that it was a kind of personal paradise, and everyone gets one when they pass. Not long after, Susie's parents; Abigail and Jack Salmon receive a call from Len Fenerman, the detective in charge of Susie's case. He explains to them that they had found one of Susie's elbow bones. The next morning Jack tells Susie's younger sister, Lindsey, 13, what was found. Lindsey's reaction was simply to vomit. Later that day, even though the crime scene had been virtually ruined, the police and detectives come out and begin digging in the cornfield. Susie's school books, class notes and other personal items were found. Including a love letter from the first and only boy she ever loved, Ray Signh. Ray had slipped the note into his books the day before he died, but Susie had never had the chance to read it. Rumors at school, of course, were circulating like crazy. Continuing to watch from heaven, Susie becomes increasingly frustrated as her killer, Mr. Harvey, goes on with her life as if nothing ever happened. Several days later, Len Fenerman tells the Salmon family that Susie is more than...... half the paper... the information he needed and it came just in time. Later, while Mr. Harvey was receiving we talked about Lindsey's break-in, Abigail Salmon was having an affair with Len Fenerman. The following summer, Abigail leaves home and family, severing all ties. That December, Mr. Harvey had been missing for more than a year, nowhere to be found. Susie feels sorry for Len because he didn't solve the case. Many years later Jack suffers a heart attack which forces him to be admitted to hospital. This important event brings Abigail back to her family. Then, while Jack was still in the hospital, Abigail fell in love with him again. At the end of the novel we learn that Susie has moved to a new, different heaven called “wide wide heaven”. He was finally at peace. As for Mr. Harvey, before he can kill again, he was killed by a falling icicle. This is the end of the novel.