Book Reviews

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Just in time to round out the old year and usher in the new, a decades-old mystery that will tear apart a small town; a hilarious romp featuring an unemployed news reporter and some seriously bad blind dates; and two teen novels; one teen reluctantly searches for her biological mother while another teen faces a life he never bargained for after a tragic mistake. THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS by Nancy Pickard, c2006, Ballentine Book , New York , NY , 335 pages. Seventeen years ago a young woman’s body was found in a Kansas pasture during a blizzard. Her identity was never discovered and she was buried in the local cemetery by the citizens of Small Plains. Now her grave has become a shrine for sick pilgrims seeking a miracle. That same night, three high school friends’ lives were changed forever. One who knew part of the truth was sent away, one was left behind with a broken heart, and one watched his father commit a crime and was sickened by the grief of carrying an awful secret. Mitch Newquist returns to Small Plains. His successful business life and broken marriage have left him bitter and disheartened. By hustling Mitch out of town the very night of the crime seventeen years ago, his family allowed his name to be forever linked with the murder. Mitch knows he’s innocent and is determined to uncover the identity of the virgin’s killer. Abby Reynolds has a quest of her own. She wants to put a name on the virgin’s tombstone to prevent caravans of pilgrims from clogging the cemetery at the grave. Sheriff Rex Shellenberger wants nothing more than to tell everyone the truth, but by doing so, he’ll ruin the lives of his best friends and perhaps set a killer loose again in Small Plains. Pickard’s latest mystery has enough twists to keep the reader guessing until the secrets of the Virgin of Small Plains are revealed. --Reviewed by Marsha Bates . NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD BLIND DATE by Shelly Fredman, c2006, AuthorHouse, Bloomington, IN, 280 pages. Brandy Alexander has moved back home to Philadelphia , but things aren’t going as smoothly as she’d like. Her house needs extensive plumbing repairs, she’s currently unemployed and it appears she’s being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, Det. Bobby DiCarlo’s wife. Problems one and two seem fixable, when Toodie Ventura offers to repair her pipes in exchange for a place to stay and Brandy’s friend sets her up with a date with the TV news director where she’d like to get a job as an investigative reporter. But Toodie skips town before the pipes are fixed and the blind date is a total disaster. Brandy’s date, who’s more fatherly than hot, refuses to eat lasagna the cat has slept in. Brandy pries open the freezer Ventura left in her basement to look for steaks and discovers frozen body parts instead. Brandy is convinced Toodie isn’t guilty of the grisly murder of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to solve the crime. In the meantime, her stalker is getting more threatening every day. How can Brandy help the police solve the crime if every meeting with Det. DiCarlo makes his wife go ballistic? A constipated stray dog, neighborhood cat burglar and a handsome lawyer add to the chaos. The only thing more precarious than Brandy’s sanity and physical safety is her love life. Why can’t she fall for one of the losers her friends set her up with, instead of crushing on Nick Santiago, a self-professed non-monogamous hunk? With the help of family and friends and one snoopy neighbor, Brandy solves the case and narrowly escapes death at the hands of a homicidal creep. Author Shelly Fredman continues her Brandy Alexander series with a top-notch sophomore effort. Fast paced fun, in-your-face Philly attitude and mayhem ensue. --Reviewed by Marsha Bates . A BRIEF CHAPTER IN MY IMPOSSIBLE LIFE by Dana Reinhardt , c2006, by Wendy Lamb Books, New York , NY , 228 pages. Simone knows she is adopted. All you have to do is look at her dark, almond shaped eyes and olive complexion and then at the sandy blonde hair and fair complexion of her parents and younger brother, and you know. But she also knows because her parents have told her. She even knows her birth mother’s name – Rivka. She knows this because her parents explained it to her before she was old enough to tell them that she didn’t want to know. Simone is happy in her comfortable little 16 year-old, high school world and she would like to keep it that way. But all this changes the night her parents announce at dinner, “Rivka called. She wants to meet you.” And her parents push her to call her back! Simone fights it, but eventually she does make that call, thus beginning this brief chapter in her impossible life. In one short year, Simone’s comfortable existence is turned on its head as she meets, learns to love, and then loses, the birth mother she never thought she wanted to know. During that time she also must deal with more typical high school events – her first boyfriend, her best friend’s adventures into sex, the SAT’s, and her views about religion, just to name a few. A coming of age novel that truly touches the heart, I highly recommend a brief chapter in my impossible life. For readers in grades 8 to 12. --Reviewed by Joyce Willis , employee of the Mid-Columbia Library System. TRIGGER by Susan Vaught, c2006, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York , NY , p290 This daring new young adult novel attempts to portray the collateral damage among families and friends when a depressed teenager attempts suicide. Jersey Hatch is seventeen now. It’s taken two years of intensive therapy to reach the moment he can leave the Carter Rehabilitation Center and return to his family. He’s half blind, his memory has gaps in it, his body has scars, his left side is weak and his brain is sometimes stuck, on a word, an event, or a dream. He has no recollection of what caused him to put a bullet in his brain. Or if he even did it. Maybe it was the Jersey Before (J.B.) whose words and ghostlike presence haunt him. Utilizing Jersey ’s unique voice, Vaught shows us the damage his decision has caused. The friendships that were shattered, his parents alienated and traumatized, his potentially successful life that was erased in a tragic moment. The question that hovers in Jersey ’s mind is why? Why did he feel he had no other choice than to kill himself? As his therapists predicted, leaving Carter for the outside world is even harder than Jersey imagined. Besides rebuilding the damage to his body, Jersey is determined to rebuild the lives of the people he cares about. But he’s now the freak, the outsider, the selfish boy who had it all and threw it away. In painstaking steps, we share Jersey ’s growth and attempts to come to grips with his new life. The answer to his actions becomes clear in a dramatic climax that shoves Jersey to the brink once again. Vaught realizes that society places intense pressure on teens from every angle. Family expectations, social conformity, athletic prowess, intellectual success, all are potential pitfalls for a child who wants to please others and still please himself. A single seemingly insignificant moment can trigger a tragedy. Vaught includes important information in the resource pages at the back of her intriguing and poignant novel. Recommended for teens in grades 8-12. --Reviewed by Marsha Bates , employee of the Kennewick Branch of the Mid-Columbia Library System.