Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The cops at the door bring even worse news than Megan had expected: it's not that her older brother, Danny, has been arrested, which would have been shock enough to her quiet middle-class family, it's that he's been shot dead. Megan's parents crumble in the face of the tragic event, but Megan knows this is more than just a random bar shooting; though she and her father have hidden the fact from her mother, they understand that Danny has been dealing drugs and bringing an attitude that gets him into major trouble ever since he was a kid, and that his fate is the outcome of his actions. Megan picks up her father's quest to find a witness to the shooting, hoping for revelation from a young guy who works at the bar, but soon she realizes that Danny was lost to her family long ago. What's unusual here is the bitterness of the truth Megan must accept, in that not only will Danny's murderer never be found, Danny was actually not the good guy she remembers; what's more, her ham-handed attempts to help her dad result in somebody else's death. The book's willingness to forego hackneyed messages is refreshing, and there's considerable realism both in the revelation that Megan's mother knew the family secret all along and in the fact that Megan now has her own secret to keep. The fast pace, big print, and compact paperback size make the title accessible to reluctant readers and a quick but satisfying drama for those aware that darkness is only a step away in even the most comfortable of lives.