Ames knows something strange is going on with her father when he becomes quieter and quieter every night and when her mother begins criticizing him more and more. When he spills that he’s lost his job, she’s disappointed, but she knows there’s something even deeper going on, and it’s not until a big blow out with her short fused and wicked mother does the truth come out.

This truth has ruined their once rich and lavish lifestyle. Ames and Chrissy can no longer go to their private school in Boulder. Then they’re going to lose their home. But where will they go? Mom doesn’t get along with her mother (who is living lavishly in a communiy for elderly residents only) and dad’s mother and father have been dead for a long time . . . or have they? The truth spills out when they are immediately yanked from Colorado to just outside Houston, Texas to a trailer park owned by dad’s parents who are in fact NOT dead. What else have Ames’s parents been hiding?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, they have one mattress to share among the four of them, and they have to do all of the rehabbing of the trailer. Ames will be the hard laborer, no doubt, but perhaps it won’t be as bad as it seems when she meets Marc, one of the boys who is helping fix up the trailer park. He seems cute, a little rough (like Ames likes), and something that her parents would utterly disapprove of. She wants it.

But she might regret that decision when the fate of her sister lies at his hands.

Dark Song is the latest release by well-known thriller/mystery writer Gail Giles. This fast-paced story begins in what seems to be the ideal setting amid wealth and power and quickly moves into the world of poverty, crime, and instability. Her signature staccato style doesn’t allow for as much character development as I’d have liked in this particular novel, but this is the kind of book that will draw in reluctant and weak readers with no problem. There is an exciting premise, and though I wanted more details and more of a realistic time frame, these are going to be the exact things that work for other readers. They want to get to the meat of the story and will have no problem with it here.

Ames is not a likable character, but compared to her mother, she is a saint. Ames’s mother is a downright wicked witch, despicable in every manner possible. And while we are immediately introduced to a likable father — the beginning pages start with a family vacation to Alaska out of the blue — we learn that dad may be an even more disgusting person than mother, but because this story is told through Ames’s perspective, we are never quite allowed to get that feeling in the same way we do with her mother. I wanted to hate her father more than I did, but Giles’s skill in developing Ames’s biases in the story did not allow me to. I think this is a good thing, too, as I would have had a different feeling about the outcome of events at the very end of the book had I hated her father more.

One thing that bothered me is the last line of the book. I won’t spill it for those who want to go in unaware, but it didn’t quite make sense to me in context of the book, though it did make me question my beliefs about Ames in the story. Because she’s not as developed as she could be, I didn’t buy her self assessment, unless it was in regards to her relationship with Marc. Even then, I needed to see more of who she became because of him, which I also didn’t get.

Dark Song is an easy sell to reluctant readers, fans of fast-paced thrillers, and both males and females. Although Ames is a female lead character, she will work for male readers. Fans of Ellen Hopkins will find a lot to enjoy with Gail Giles’s new title, as well. Although this title won’t work for hard core mystery readers, fans of lighter mysteries will enjoy the secrets embedded in this family and will find the unraveling of the truth something to relish.

*Review copy picked up at BEA.