What young boy doesn't at one point dream of being a fireman or a policeman? These days it might not just be boys! So it's no surprise that Max Elliot Anderson, in this latest edition of the Tweener Press Adventure Series, has Randy Wilcox and his friends form a detective club and proceed to attempt solving their first crime mystery.

First, they actually manage to save the money they need to buy a police scanner so they can hear about actual crimes being carried out in the present or recent past. Hopefully other young readers will lose interest in pursuing what they hear on such a scanner as they continue to read about the dangers Randy and his friends faced further on in the story.

Bank robbers think that hiding in a cave until the heat is off will be the perfect escape method, but they haven't figured in being outwitted by these young boys. As in a previous edition of this series, the boys are faced with a moral decision. Should they keep the wealth they find or honestly turn it into the appropriate authorities? The way in which they meet this central moment's problem is described so realistically by Anderson, who truly understands how his characters think and feel, as well as act. There's a higher power behind all of the intrigue and choices characters make in all of Anderson 's young adult novels, which only adds to the singularly fascinating and well-crafted quality. That is no different in this latest novel in the Tweener series.

Most significant in this story is the fact that Randy learns what a true hero is and how that connects with present events as well as major historical events in the not so distant past!!! As young readers become distant from their parents and siblings' memories of 911, this is an additional thread of meaning the author has sensitively included!

Kudos on a finely written tale – again

 

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on 3/31/06