In anticipation of an eighth grade mystery unit this fall, I picked up The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson. Let me say up front that while I loved the Bobbsey Twins series as a girl, this is by no means your mother's childhood mystery. When Cameryn convinces her father, who is the coroner of a small mountain town in Colorado, to hire her as his assistant, little does she suspect that her interest in forensic pathology will bring her face-to-face with the murder of a friend. Ferguson does an excellent job of describing the details of death in the eyes of an investigator, making this piece as morbidly fascinating as a rubber-necker might find a serious car wreck. Simply put, The Christopher Killer is both difficult to read and difficult to put down giving this reader some genuine food-for-thought about what happens between dying and interment. That Ferguson adds to the novel with Cameryn's struggle to come to terms with having been abandoned by her mother, as well as the mounting sexual tension between Cameryn and the sheriff's deputy make this novel a page turner for busy, curious minds.
No doubt, this YA novel will intrigue kids who are too wisened by the media to accept traditional kids' mysteries as "good reads".
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