A murder mystery with a likable hero.
A boarding school killing rekindles haunting memories for the so-called Kidnapped Kid as he sets out to clear his best friend’s name in this debut YA novel.
Luke Chase, a junior at St. Benedict’s (“in the heart of Connecticut”), is an “all-around good guy: clean-cut, a great student and athlete.” Oscar Weymouth, his roommate, is an authority-flouting rebel. One fateful night, the two defy campus rules and sneak out into the woods for an illicit rendezvous with two girls, Kelsey and Pippa, a British transfer student on whom Luke has a crush. The thrill of “living on the edge” takes a deadly turn when the dean’s second wife, Joanna, is murdered near their meeting spot. When Oscar is implicated in the crime, Luke must shake off his own growing suspicions about his best friend and find the real killer. Suspects range from the creepy Mr. Tadeckis, who runs the school’s Outdoor Survival Program, to the community’s legendary boogeyman, the Southborough Strangler. Luke wants to solve the case to give the school something else to talk about besides his own legendary status as the Kidnapped Kid, “the bravest boy in America,” who three years prior escaped his abductors and survived for days in the wilderness thanks to skills taught to him by his grandfather. It was never determined why Luke was targeted. Adding to his unease is that one of his kidnappers was never apprehended. Vance (a pseudonym) has created an affable hero in Luke, whose modestly carries the burden of his unwanted fame. The author deftly sets the stage for future investigative adventures and leaves enough loose threads in Luke’s backstory to further explore that enigma. While the writing could be sharper (“Things had gone beyond a fear of getting in trouble; now their safety might be in jeopardy”), a climactic chase through a maze is an effective set piece. There is little blood, only the mildest profanity, and no sexual situations. But some of the pop- culture references geared toward the intended YA readers seem either forced (Game of Thrones) or past their shelf life (Napoleon Dynamite). This might not make the grade for more hard-boiled genre fans.
A murder mystery with a likable hero.Pub Date: March 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9984997-7-2
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Dunemere Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Bulky, balky, talky.
In an updated quest for the Holy Grail, the narrative pace remains stuck in slo-mo.
But is the Grail, in fact, holy? Turns out that’s a matter of perspective. If you’re a member of that most secret of clandestine societies, the Priory of Sion, you think yes. But if your heart belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, the Grail is more than just unholy, it’s downright subversive and terrifying. At least, so the story goes in this latest of Brown’s exhaustively researched, underimagined treatise-thrillers (Deception Point, 2001, etc.). When Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon—in Paris to deliver a lecture—has his sleep interrupted at two a.m., it’s to discover that the police suspect he’s a murderer, the victim none other than Jacques Saumière, esteemed curator of the Louvre. The evidence against Langdon could hardly be sketchier, but the cops feel huge pressure to make an arrest. And besides, they don’t particularly like Americans. Aided by the murdered man’s granddaughter, Langdon flees the flics to trudge the Grail-path along with pretty, persuasive Sophie, who’s driven by her own need to find answers. The game now afoot amounts to a scavenger hunt for the scholarly, clues supplied by the late curator, whose intent was to enlighten Sophie and bedevil her enemies. It’s not all that easy to identify these enemies. Are they emissaries from the Vatican, bent on foiling the Grail-seekers? From Opus Dei, the wayward, deeply conservative Catholic offshoot bent on foiling everybody? Or any one of a number of freelancers bent on a multifaceted array of private agendas? For that matter, what exactly is the Priory of Sion? What does it have to do with Leonardo? With Mary Magdalene? With (gulp) Walt Disney? By the time Sophie and Langdon reach home base, everything—well, at least more than enough—has been revealed.
Bulky, balky, talky.Pub Date: March 18, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-50420-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2003
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
