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Chasing Alliecat by Rebecca Fjelland Davis

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Sadie’s parents have a bit of a strange relationship, and to figure out where they stand with one another, they’re spending the summer together in Egypt. Sadie, of course, can’t come with them, so they dump her with family in small town Minnesota, where she lives in a tiny room and finds herself bored. But then Sadie meets Joe and Allie — and it’ll be Allie who ultimately changes the course of her summer by pushing her to try something new: mountain biking.

Sadie finds she loves biking, and she gets good at it. So good, in fact, she signs up for a mid-summer race as a beginner. Even though her nerves shake and shake at the thought, she’s going to do it. This is going to be her summer escape.

Then things between Joe and Allie get tense, and Joe seeks the time and guidance of Sadie, who herself is confused about who or what either of her new friends are. She wants to get to the bottom of these two, but when Allie finds the half-dead body of a local priest then disappears mysteriously for days, that’s when Sadie knows there is something much deeper and darker going on.

Chasing Alliecat was a fast-paced read that I think really fills a niche in the YA market. It’s part adventure, part mystery, as well as part sports novel. There are killer racing scenes written with pure adrenaline, and even as a non-biker, I could feel those moments and they made me want to grab a bike and hit the trails with Allie.

I dug the way this book was set up and executed: immediately, we know that there is a mostly dead body and we know that Allie is somehow connected to this priest. Of course, we don’t know why, and we aren’t given the chance to know why for quite a while. As soon as the body’s discovered and Allie flees, we’re ripped from the moment and taken back a month in time to the beginning of Sadie’s stay with her relatives. This gives us as readers not only the opportunity to get to know the characters and the story leading to this life changing bike trip, but it also forces us to read a little differently than had we been given the story more linearly. I like that we’re trusted to play detective before Sadie can, since the story’s flashback point means she actually doesn’t know what’s going to happen is coming — this isn’t a story of her reflecting back on the events leading up to the discovery so it’s as if we get secret knowledge and we can pack it away and hope Sadie gets those clues along the way. This was a very smart tactic, and it really stood out to me as an offering of trust to the reader.

The relationships among characters are interesting, and I think that Davis does a good job developing full and dynamic characters. Allie is herself a bit of an enigma, but because we pick up enough clues through Sadie (and Joe’s) observations, we get a picture that there’s something broken about her. She’s a tough girl and not just because of her mountain biking. Sadie is, too, though she seeks the same sort of strength present in Allie. Joe is also a character of strength, but Sadie’s a little more reluctant to dig this from him; she knows there’s something buried inside him since the death of his brother, and when she finds it, her respect for him grows exponentially.

For me, the mystery of the story seemed pretty obvious. I had Allie’s game figured out early on, as some of her clues are huge, but I think for the average teen reader, this won’t be so obvious. The mystery itself reminded me a bit of the mystery in Mary Jane Beaufrand’s The River in that all of the pieces are there, but the actual point of the story isn’t to collect them to get from point A to point B. Instead, we’re supposed to stop and consider the bigger elements of the story itself: the characters, the setting, and the vehicles driving the narrative. That’s to say, the bigger mystery is unlocking these pieces. Once those unravel, the mystery works itself out.

I didn’t quite feel the romantic pull between Joe and Sadie as I believe I maybe should have, but that came down to also not believing Allie’s sexuality. We’re given hints — from Joe himself, in fact — that Allie is a lesbian. In fact, we’re led to believe throughout that Allie may have feelings toward Sadie; at the end of the story, we’re given Sadie’s insight into this and her reactions. I kind of felt this element was extraneous and served as a way to detract from the mystery. I think given the powerful aspect of mountain biking woven into the story, this could have been left out. I didn’t think romance or discussion of sexuality mattered in a story that really dug into much deeper family issues. I guess, too, I was a little uncomfortable with how Sadie handles this in the end, even if she is quite realistic. Most readers won’t give it a second thought.

Chasing Alliecat is an excellent pick for readers looking for a good story with solid characters that moves along quickly. I think this title would work for reluctant readers — this is plot driven, despite having strong characters — and the premise of the story involving mountain biking has instant appeal. Though don’t discount this as only a book for reluctant readers: your light mystery and adventure fans will love this, as will readers looking for teens who do teen things like learn to mountain bike during the summer. There’s not too much content wise to worry about in this title, aside from a little cursing (which is not in any way gratuitous but fits with the characters and the sport), so I think this is a title you could talk to upper middle school students and high schoolers without problem.

Guest Post: The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

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Journalist and blogger Matthew Jackson joins us a second time for a guest review of The Sherlockian, a debut adult mystery/thriller from Graham Moore which went on sale today.  Jackson blogs about books, movies, and other nerdery at www.awalrusdarkly.blogspot.com. 
 Upon Arthur Conan Doyle’s death in 1930, his personal effects and papers were scattered among family members, universities and other scholarly organizations. Doyle was a writer in the most literal, compulsive sense, documenting the details of his life in a series of leather bound diaries. After his death, one of these diaries, documenting the latter portion of 1900, went missing. Sherlockians (scholars who study, often fanatically, the life and times of the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his illustrious creator) of the highest caliber have searched for the diary, considered the Holy Grail of Sherlock Holmes studies, for eight decades without success.

Graham Moore uses this last mystery of one of the great mystery writers as the catalyst for his debut novel, The Sherlockian. In Moore’s highly fictionalized version of events, based loosely on the strange death of noted Sherlockian Richard Lancelyn Green, a noted Doyle scholar claims to have found the diary and promises to debut it to the world at the annual convention of the Baker Street Irregulars, the world’s largest Sherlock Holmes club. On the eve of this highly-anticipated lecture, the scholar turns up dead in his hotel room, and the diary is nowhere to be found. Newly-initiated Irregular Harold White and freelance reporter Sarah Lindsay are asked by a member of the Doyle family to get to the bottom of the mystery.

In between Harold and Sarah’s Da Vinci Code-like quest for the grail of Doyle studies, Moore tells the tale of what happened to Arthur Conan Doyle himself in the months the diary is said to document. After a mysterious package appears on his desk, Doyle, with the aid of his friend Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), sets out to solve the mystery of a trio of murdered suffragettes that takes him into the seedier sections of Victorian London.

The Sherlockian flits back and forth between these two stories, attempting to present two simultaneously satisfying mysteries while feeding out a number of scholarly nuggets on Sherlock Holmes, Victorian London, The Baker Street Irregulars and Doyle himself.

It sounds like a cool concept, is a cool concept, especially if you’re a fan of The Great Detective, but despite having a killer (pun intended) hook, a dynamic setting and the weight of one of mystery literature’s great icons in its corner, The Sherlockian falls flat.

Good thrillers, especially the kind that attempt to juggle two storylines, have to be fast. They have to be lightning fast, so hot in your hands that you can’t think about sleep, even when it’s 4 a.m. The Sherlockian’s premise achieves that, but its pacing does not. Once the initial fire of the early chapters wears off, it’s a stiff trudge to the next plot milestone, and when you get there the result is often underwhelming. Moore’s overuse of detail when his characters begin to lecture on Holmes, Doyle, Victorian London and the like, is part of the problem, but it’s not the only problem. Neither mystery is tight, or threatening, or even particularly complex. Both plot lines seem to meander along from clue to clue, often clumsily hitting on what are supposed to be huge revelations, but turn out to be either red herrings of flat-out disappointments.

Even the most flawed of plot-heavy fiction can be saved by the addition of a few intriguing, amusing or even disgusting characters, but everyone in The Sherlockian, even the towering figure of Arthur Conan Doyle, seems like a grayscale sketch of a person rather than anything real. Harold is little more than a talking encyclopedia most of the time, and the intended sexual tension between him and Sarah ends up as little more than weak banter. Every chapter seems to bring a new predictable archetype, no one seems to have any real face, and that means that the things they’re after mean even less as the book wears on.

Moore is an able enough writer, even a good writer, but The Sherlockian is a debut novel that reeks of timidity and second guessing. There are moments – a discussion between Doyle and Stoker on the changing world in front of them comes to mind – that soar with a kind of insight that makes your hands tighten around the book, but they are few and far between. The rest is a mass of almost-good, shrug-worthy storytelling of the kind that almost makes you angry; angry that you can see the potential, but not the follow-through.

Galley obtained at BEA.

Blood On My Hands, by Todd Strasser (plus giveaway!)

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When I was a tween and young teen, I couldn’t get enough of mysteries and thrillers.  I read all of the original Nancy Drew books (in those bright yellow covers), motored my way through Lois Duncan’s repertoire, and devoured every single Joan Lowery Nixon I could get my hands on.  Then my tastes turned to fantasy and I didn’t really read mysteries again until I was an adult, when I tended to stick to adult authors like Elizabeth George, Alexander McCall Smith, and Elizabeth Peters.
Recently, though, I’ve gone back to my roots and re-discovered my love for fast-paced mysteries with a lot of the action that made them so easy and fun to read.  I’ve read some duds and a couple that were merely so-so, but a few have stood out.  Last year, I read Wish You Were Dead, Todd Strasser’s first entry in his “thrillogy” – a series of three books described as modern murder mysteries.  Strasser takes the “modern” part to heart.  Wish You Were Dead is full of references to social networking, and a blog written by an anonymous author who scribbles hatred toward the murder victim is the driving force of the story.
Wish You Were Dead is a smoothly-written, fast-paced mystery/thriller with plenty of twists and turns.  The chapters are short and the red herrings are many.  These things are just what I like in my teen mysteries, and (bonus!) I did NOT have the culprit figured out well before the protagonist did.  While plot is far and away the most important part of the book, Strasser’s writing still gives us some indication of character (a good thing, since character is what motivates the murder).
 

Blood On My Hands, the second installment in the “thrillogy,” is not quite as strong as the first (I guessed the culprit ahead of time), but still delivers the action, the plot twists, and plenty of the modern touches that I expected.  (It should be noted that these modern touches will date the books very quickly – they really are books for the moment.)  In this one, our protagonist Callie is caught by a cell phone camera beside her murdered “frenemy” Katherine holding a bloody knife.  From there on out, the book is one long chase scene (peppered with Callie’s flashbacks) as Callie attempts to avoid the police while simultaneously determining who really killed Katherine.  Once again, Strasser packs in enough plot to fill two books, but it works. 
 
Strasser’s “thrillogy” books are definitely for those of us who know and love the mystery/thriller genre.  I call them mystery/thrillers because I don’t think the books would have a lot of appeal to people who prefer their mysteries cozy or more akin to police procedurals.  There’s no slow moment where the amateur sleuth deliberates the facts of the case – Strasser’s protagonists are always in danger of being caught (and often in danger of dying).  It’s fast and fun and a great way to spend an afternoon.
 
In order to spread the reading love, I’m giving away a copy of both books I discussed here – a paperback of Wish You Were Dead and a bound galley of Blood On My Hands, which will be published September 28 by Egmont USA.  To enter for a chance to win both these books, just fill out the form below.  A winner will be randomly chosen September 17.

Both books received from publisher.

Wherever Nina Lies, by Lynn Weingarten (Kim’s Take)

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Kelly reviewed this book over the weekend, so I won’t rehash the plot too much. Ellie sets off on a road trip with her new crush, the only person who believes they can find her sister Nina who disappeared two years ago. Check out Kelly’s review for a more detailed synopsis.

Wherever Nina Lies, by Lynn Weingarten, is a mix of road trip book, romance, and mystery/thriller, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I admit that I judge a book by its cover, and I am not sure the cover of this one really portrays it accurately. Despite the blurb on the back of the book, the cover led me to expect something very girly and very fluffy (all that pink, and the soft image of the cover model). While the target audience is definitely female, and there are some fluffy aspects, it is a much weightier book than I initially anticipated.

The pacing is perfect. The mystery unfolds at just the right speed, imparting just the right amount of creepiness and growing unease. The climax of the book proves it to be a real thriller, and I could not put it down – I read it while walking around my house and even pulled it out once while I was stopped at a red light. While I read, I was reminded a lot of Wish You Were Dead, by Todd Strasser, another excellent teen thriller I read a few months ago.

One of the aspects I most enjoyed about the book were the drawings sprinkled throughout. Nina was an aspiring artist, and her drawings provide clues to her disappearance. They’re not phenomenal drawings – they look like they were drawn by an 18 year old girl, which is a good thing. One of the strongest features of the book is that it includes so many different elements (the drawings, the road trip, the romance, the mystery) without seeming hodge-podge and disjointed.

It’s not a perfect book. Sometimes characterization is sacrificed for plot, and full enjoyment requires the reader to very willingly suspend her disbelief – but fans of the mystery/thriller genre are practiced at putting their incredulity on the back burner for awhile. Wherever Nina Lies is a real page turner, and reading it was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Check back tomorrow – we’ll be giving away THREE copies of the paperback book to three lucky winners.

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

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If you haven’t heard of this book before, you might believe that it’s a teen romance from the title. Do not let the title fool you. It has a very small romance in it, but it is mostly peripheral, and this story is about something entirely different.

There is so much involved in this 197-page book that it’s hard to know what to mention in this review and what to leave out. Miranda lives in New York City with her mom. It’s 1979, Miranda is twelve years old, and she’s been receiving mysterious notes from a stranger that discuss things that will happen in Miranda’s future. And then those things come to pass, like the fact that Miranda’s mom becomes a contestant on the game show $20,000 Pyramid. Within this time-travel mystery, the book also touches upon class, race, friendship, bullying, homelessness, and so many other issues. Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is a recurrent theme, and any kid who loves that book (as so many did in 1979 and so many do now) will also love the many references to it here.

When You Reach Me starts a bit slow. Miranda doesn’t receive the first note until page 60, and before that happens, I wasn’t sure where the book was heading. Once the first note hit, however, I was hooked.

The book benefits from short, snappy chapters (2-3 pages each) with interesting titles deliberately mimicking the game show (Things That Go Missing; Things That Sneak Up on You; Things That Turn Pink). (For those of us who haven’t ever watched the $20,000 Pyramid, the second round involves one contestant trying to get her partner to guess the category of the words she recites. For example, she might say “Lever, Handle, Hair,” and the answer would be “Things you pull.”)

I think young fans of genre fiction, particularly mysteries and science fiction, will find a lot to like in this book. It has those mystery and sci-fi elements, but it really is something unique that makes it stand out from these genres. At times Miranda’s voice seems a bit too mature, but for the most part she is engaging and seems like a twelve year old. If a young reader makes it to page 60, he or she will not be able to stop until reaching the end. The end is really spectacular, perhaps not as surprising to an adult as it might be to a child, but beautifully written and just challenging enough to require some thought after the last page is turned but also be understandable for its intended audience.

The biggest thing that will prevent this book from moving off the shelves, or at least the copy that I read, is the cover. Not the front cover, which isn’t too bad, but the back. There is no book blurb. Instead, it’s a litany of praise for Stead’s earlier book, First Light. That isn’t terribly unusual, but the book doesn’t have an inside flap. There’s no way for a tween browsing the shelves to find out what this book is about. Something like that is vital, and I’m sad that it’s missing from this copy, because I really think this book could have a fairly large audience. I can think of a half-dozen ways to pitch it: how Miranda’s friend Sal gets punched in the face for no apparent reason on the street one day, the time travel enigma, the mysterious notes…the blurb could easily grab someone.

Despite that (or because of that, really), I encourage you to give this one a try. It’s refreshing and interesting, and you could read it in an afternoon.