CM Magazine: Over the Edge.

________________ CM . . . . Volume VII Number 6 . . . . November 17, 2000

Over the Edge.

Norah McClintock.
Markham, ON: Scholastic Canada, 2000.
216 pp., pbk., $5.99.
ISBN 0-590-24845-6.

Subject Headings:
Murder-Juvenile fiction.
Extortion-Juvenile fiction.
Detective and mystery stories.

Grades 8 and up / Ages 13 and up.

Review by Betsy Fraser.

*** /4

excerpt:

The Lookout is solid rock, a big bare slab of Canadian Shield that sticks out like an old man's bald head up above a forest of pine and spruce and birch. There was a certain logic to Peter being there. A guy who loved stars, out in the park, away from the lights of town, where you could get a really good look at the night sky.
    "Star-gazing, I bet," I said.
    Levesque shook his head. "He was at the bottom of the Lookout, not the top."
    That didn't make any sense. "What was he doing there?"
    This earned me another long look from Levesque. "I'm sorry to say, he wasn't breathing."

Chloe Yan was not thrilled when Louis Levesque became her stepfather, primarily because he became the Chief of Police in East Hastings and moved the entire family there from Montreal. Unlike her little sister, Chloe is not adjusting to the new town or to the new family arrangements. Even so, she is pulled into one of Levesque's cases after loner Peter Flosnick disappears. When his body is found later, his death is thought to be a suicide, but Peter's mother disagrees with the verdict. Chloe slowly starts to think that there might be something going on in this sleepy town as she uncovers several mysteries surrounding Peter and some of the school's most popular students. Can she discover the truth behind Peter's disappearance without endangering herself?
This is an exciting book with a taut storyline that gradually becomes an involving suspense novel. Norah McClintock, three-time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction, has written a novel that will appeal to those teens who seek out stories of teens finding a place in a changing family situation as well as those who are fans of high school romance or mystery buffs. Chloe is a well-rounded and believable character who finds herself in a situation that soon spins out of her control. Levesque is an appealing supporting character who tries to do his job while balancing his investigation at Chloe's school with their home life. The other students at school provide a few pleasant surprises and manage not to remind the reader of many other high school novels.

Recommended.

Betsy Fraser is a librarian with Calgary Public Library.

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

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - November 17, 2000.