RUNNER

Seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor lives on a sailboat at the marina. The boat’s not seaworthy and represents the life Chance and his father share—rocking back and forth and going nowhere. Chance sits in the back of every classroom, making himself invisible. Mr. Taylor drinks, has trouble holding down a job and struggles to pay the bills. So, Chance agrees to be a runner, picking up mysterious parcels on his daily running route and passing them on to the fat man from the marina, knowing that it’s probably wrong and likely dangerous, but it pays very well. Sinister goings-on, a murder, last-minute heroism and a new life rich with possibility make this a satisfying read. Deuker’s brisk narrative, long on action if short on embellishment, will carry along even the most reluctant of readers in this post-9/11 tale of terrorism on the Puget Sound. (Fiction. 11+)