SECONDS AWAY

High school sleuth Mickey Bolitar continues to find trouble...or maybe it finds him (Shelter, 2011).

In a spooky house, Mickey squares off with a gnarled crone he knows only as the Bat Lady. She freaks him out by telling him that his father is not dead, and Mickey responds with a revelation of his own: that the paramedic who whisked his father away on the day of his death is a notorious Nazi war criminal. As implausible as this sounds, the Bat Lady's violent reaction seems a validation of his claim. This troubling issue is shoved onto a back burner with the news that Mickey's friend Rachel was shot by an intruder, who also killed her mother. The mutual attraction of Mickey and Rachel is a thorn in the side of her boyfriend, basketball star Troy Taylor, who also happens to be threatened by Mickey's mad court skills. Since Troy's dad is the police chief, Mickey finds himself treated like a suspect. He and outcast pals Ema and Spoon try to unravel both mysteries, too busy to even note the arrival of movie star Angelica Wyatt, who's managed by Mickey's Uncle Myron, with whom he lives (and around whom Coben has spun a successful series for adults). Coben deftly weaves these multiple plot threads into a compelling whole.

An involving thriller that moves like lightning.