No Escape. Norah McClintock. Markham, ON: Scholastic Canada, 2003. 235 pp., pbk., $6.99. ISBN 0-439-96905-0. Grades 6-11 / Ages 12-16. Review by Deanna Einarson. **** /4

excerpt:

I should have foreseen it. After all, I’d had an omen, namely that as East Hastings Regional High loomed into view, the first thing – think insect – that I saw Rick Antonio. Yuck. Then I widened my focus. Rick, Brad Hudson and some of the other jocks had formed a rough circle on the playing field. A bunch of other kids clustered around them. I’d been in high school long enough to know what that meant.

My first instinct was to stay away. Circles like that are like people slowing down on the highway to gawk at an accident scene. I didn’t want to be one of those losers. But where there’s an accident, there’s usually a victim. And where there’s Rick Antonio, there’s definitely a bully. A minute later I was muscling my way through a line of my fellow students.

The fictional small town of East Hasting, ON, is in turmoil when Caleb Darke, following his release from prison after serving eight years for the aggravated assault of his fiancé, Terri Tyson, returns home. Terri’s father, Daniel Tyson, and her brother, Charles, are prominent and influential people in this small town. They are upset that Caleb has been released and outraged that he is allowed to return. Terri remains a constant reminder to her family and to the community of the trauma that she went through as she is brain damaged and in a wheelchair as a result of her attack.

     Seventeen-year-old Chloe Yan finds herself tangled up in assault, murder and blackmail when her younger half-sister, Phoebe, begins dating Caleb’s brother, Kyle Darke. The sisters, along with Kyle, believe that Caleb was framed and are determined to uncover the truth. Chloe turns to her step-father, police chief Louis Levesque. Although Louis is reluctant to let Chloe and Phoebe become involved, they persist.

     The teens expose secrets of murder and blackmail going back seventeen years. Chloe, Phoebe, and Kyle are able to discredit alibis and find evidence that the police were unable to discover. They succeed in clearing Caleb, find the real perpetrators, and reunite Terri and Caleb.

     Norah McClintock has woven a complicated, interesting plot throughout No Escape and keeps readers in suspense until the last pages. One of the aspects that make this plot so complex is the number of major and minor characters, and, with this vast number of characters and the fact that so many names are similar, readers spend considerable time keeping straight the who’s who. However, this novel does a good job of creating a considerably more complex plot than the usual adolescent thriller or mystery. It combines believable characters from various ethnic backgrounds with a small town Canadian setting that teens will relate to.

Highly Recommended.

Deanna Einarson is a teacher at Springfield Collegiate Institute in Oakbank, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

 

NEXT REVIEW | TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - June 4, 2004.

AUTHORS | TITLES | MEDIA REVIEWS | PROFILES | BACK ISSUES | SEARCH | CMARCHIVE | HOME