The Fourth Stall: By Chris Rylander

THE FOURTH STALL

SUMMARY

Do you need something? Mac can get it for you. It's what he does—he and his best friend and business manager, Vince. Their methods might sometimes run afoul of the law, or at least the school code of conduct, but if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can pay him, Mac is on your side. His office is located in the East Wing boys' bathroom, fourth stall from the high window. And business is booming.

Or at least it was, until one particular Monday. It starts with a third grader in need of protection. And before this ordeal is over, it's going to involve a legendary high school crime boss named Staples, an intramural gambling ring, a graffiti ninja, the nine most dangerous bullies in school, and the first Chicago Cubs World Series game in almost seventy years. And that's just the beginning. Mac and Vince soon realize that the trouble with solving everyone else's problems is that there's no one left to solve yours.

REVIEW

Fans of Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane will love this book for their kids. The Fourth Stall takes all the key elements out of these authors’ excellent detective novels and miniaturizes for a younger audience. Instead of having a run down office, readers will find Mac, the stories narrator, in a broken down toilet stall in the boys bathroom. Instead of fixing any situation by solving a murder mystery, Mac fixes the situations for elementary and middle school kids. The similarities go on and on, but that’s exactly the purpose the author, Chris Rylander, wrote The Fourth Stall with.

I particularly enjoyed the end of the book where Rylander sets up a sequel to The Fourth Stall by having “a real dame” walk into the stall to ask for help. But the books target audience will love any number of things, from Vince’s insane sayings, to the exciting action scenes that seems to occur every other chapter, to Mac’s descriptions of characters and situations and the ruminations of cases past and how he met the other members of his crew. But most importantly readers will love the mystery detective style that the book emits.

That said this book is not for everyone. It hits perfectly for its target audience (kids in late elementary and middle school), but readers of an older persuasion might find some of the aspects of the book lacking.

Of course it wasn’t written for this older audience, so because of that my feelings are that this is a great book that does an excellent job of bringing the world of mystery and detective novels to young readers, an audience that I’m sure will love it.

RATING

8 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Walden Pond Press

Published: February 8, 2011

Price: $15.99

Blank Confession: By Pete Hautman

BLANK CONFESSION

SUMMARY

Shayne Blank is the new kid in town--but that doesn't stop him from getting into a lot of trouble very quickly. The other kids don't understand him. He's not afraid of anything. He seems too smart. And his background doesn't add up. But when he walks into the police department to confess to a murder, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems. There's more to Shayne--and his story--than meets the eye. As the details begin to fill in, the only thing that becomes clear is that nothing about Shayne's story is clear at all.

REVIEW

I’ve been looking forward to this book since I read about it a few months ago. Blank Confession looked exciting, suspenseful, and well written (I’m assuming the last thing from Hautman’s previous books and level of writing in general.)

I wasn’t wrong.

Blank Confession tells a sensational story detailing the trials and troubles of drug use in schools today. But Hautman doesn’t just leave the story as a simple drugs are bad and look at what they do, instead he interlays it with a suspenseful murder mystery, a courageous yet dishonest hero, and a telling of the story from the end, allowing the reader to sit and wonder what just went on. But while the story is fantastic and the craftsmanship superb, the most impressive aspect were the characters.

In a short period of time (and words) Hautman slices to the core of each of his characters. They are interesting, unique, and humanistic, but most importantly they are well written. Mikey has obvious issues being short, but the real crux of his character flaw deals with his family issues with his father. Shayne is the complex and heroic protagonist who has unresolved issues that are not mentioned until the end of the book. And even the officer who Shayne confesses to has unresolved issues that Hautman ties into the story.

But what I found interesting about these characters is that Hautman seamlessly connects all these characters in a very realistic manner. He doesn’t have Mikey suddenly get a backbone, he doesn’t have Mikey’s sister suddenly get over big bad boys, and he doesn’t have Shayne suddenly change his personality. Instead they all remain just as they are but perhaps alter 15% over the course of the book. A very realistic change.

All in all Blank Confession is an intricate, well written book. The characters are well developed, the plot interesting, and the style masterful. While the book is short it’s defiantly worth the read, and weather readers choose to get it from the library to save money or buy it for Christmas, Blank Confession is a good read.

RAITNG

8.5 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Published: November 16, 2010

Price: $16.99

Newton and the Counterfeiter, the Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist: By thomas Levenson

NEWTON AND THE COUNTERFEITER

SUMMARY

In 1695, Isaac Newton--already renowned as the greatest mind of his age--made a surprising career change. He left quiet Cambridge, where he had lived for thirty years and made his earth-shattering discoveries, and moved to London to take up the post of Warden of His Majesty's Mint. Newton was preceded to the city by a genius of another kind, the budding criminal William Chaloner. Thanks to his preternatural skills as a counterfeiter, Chaloner was rapidly rising in London's highly competitive underworld, at a time when organized law enforcement was all but unknown and money in the modern sense was just coming into being. Then he crossed paths with the formidable new warden. In the courts and streets of London--and amid the tremors of a world being transformed by the ideas Newton himself had set in motion--the two played out an epic game of cat and mouse.

REVIEW

What do you think about when you think of Sir Isaac Newton?

Most people would only be able to say he discovered gravity.

And yet the life of Sir Isaac Newton encompassed so much more than that. He invented calculus, the silver standard, and prosecuted the most notorious counterfeiter in English history.

And it is through Thomas Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter, the Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist that we are introduced to this multifaceted life of Isaac Newton.

Newton and the Counterfeiter, the Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist is a brilliant biography of Sir Isaac Newton. Readable and enjoyable, Levenson introduces us to the genius, Isaac Newton, and makes him a flesh and blood character rather than the bland name we learned in history books. Levenson’s love of Newton is apparent as Levenson makes the reader experience the excitement and importance of Newton’s discoveries and shows how Newton literally changed the world. At the same time, Levenson takes the reader on a tour of seventeenth century England, including the criminal element of that time. At the end of the story the reader has learned about alchemy, economics, prison systems, and the details of counterfeiting in Newton’s day, all in a page turning enjoyable read.

One of my only qualms with the book in fact was that it was severely misrepresented. From reading the back cover and other information on Newton and the Counterfeiter it was marketed as a mystery novel, and an intricate one at that, but after reading it, Newton and the Counterfeiter has proven to be almost anything but. It showed intricate and interesting information about Newton, his life, his experiments, but when it came to any aspects dealing with the mystery part of the book, it was slow, repetitious, and lacking on any mysterious element. In fact if one thing is to be said about Newton and the Counterfeiter it is that it’s a wonderful biography, but only a relatively mediocre mystery.

RATING

7 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: April 12, 2010

Price: $14.95

The Big Bang: By Mickey Spillane and Max Collins

The Big Bang

SUMMARY

In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. Hammer considers the rescue a one-off, but someone has different ideas, as indicated by a street-corner knife attack.With himself for a client, Hammer—and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda—take on the narcotics racket in New York just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men,meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance. Originally begun and outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties, and expertly completed by his longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage Mike Hammer on acid . . . literally.

REVIEW

First there was Philip Marlow. Then there was Sam Spade. And finally the toughest and the last of the old time P.I’s, Mike Hammer. Hammer comes from simpler times, back when women were dolls, the police were pigs, and crime was rampant. There weren’t computers or cell phones, no GPS or email, this was back when if a P.I. wanted a case he had to get his hands dirty and do it the old fashioned way, good old fashioned investigating. And this is exactly what Mike Hammer does he does good old fashion P.I. work to get the case solved.

I was genuinely surprised how much I liked the book.

Before I begin on how good this book was I first want to speak a second on its pedigree. It is the long lost manuscript of the infamous and deceased mystery writer Mickey Spillane, the creator of Hammer’s world. With the co-author, Max Collins, being the writer of Road to Perdition and Saving Private Ryan, Oscar winners all. All in all a sensational pedigree.

But even with its pedigree building it up The Big Bang still found room to surprise and entertain me. In fact it’s one of the best mysteries I’ve read in years. It takes a simple easy to spot twist in the plot and goes further, surprising and shocking readers and reviewers alike with the coldness and sharp change that occurred in the story.

Spillane and Collins did great job of continuing the Mike Hammer legacy in this book. It’s 256 pages, short enough for a cool summer read and long enough to get into the book and really enjoy it. Besides it’s length, the book is action packed and filled with all the great aspects mystery readers crave in strong mystery novel.

All in all this is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick entertaining summer read, especially mystery lovers.

RATING

9 out of 10

INFO

PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

PUBLISHED: May 14, 2010

PRICE: $25.00