Officer Rawls is ready to go home when Shayne Blank walks into the police station and confesses to a murder. Throughout the evening Shayne slowly tells his story of the last few weeks and how everything led up to the murder. This story is told through three voices – Officer Rawls, Shayne Blank and Mikey who is very short, a loud mouth and always wears suits, which leads him to being bullied at school.
Shayne moves into town one day and meets Mikey at school and they end up being unlikely friends. Mikey having no choice gets mixed up with the notorious drug dealer of the school who also happens to be his sister’s boyfriend. Shayne helps Mikey by standing up to Jon which is where we see that Shayne has great Ninja skills and is not afraid to take on anyone. This starts a chain of events that leads up to Shayne confessing to murder.
We know that someone is going to die but there are many twists and turns leaving it wide open to who it might be. This book is written in short chapters and has only 170 pages making it a great read for reluctant readers especially boys.
Recommended by Joleen Waltman, Librarian, Idaho USA
