This book was the last of my indie picks for January, and it was a lot fun, had a very youthful quality and an interesting mystery/story line. I liked that the author chose to have a lead who was complex, shy, but brave. Jerry is not just solving mysteries for a chance at writing for the local paper, he is figuring out the mystery of himself. Very good job meshing his own self-discovery with the discovery of the crime he is pursuing. The tone of the book is distinctly young adult, a modern Hardy Boys (with some great girls thrown into the mix).

There are some elements in this book that need work, however, which is why I did not rate it higher. Some dialogue seems forced, a few grammatical errors are present throughout, and there are some scenes in which the going-ons of the characters, their positions, etc. are not clear to me. With some touch ups to the manuscript, this could easily be a very fast read, and a very fun one. As it stands, I can only say that I enjoyed it, but did not LOVE it. I think that could easily change with a tweak here and there.

Thank you, A.J., for the enjoyable mystery. A little editing will make this book a great success, I am sure. Keep writing. Your voice and story were a lot of fun. ( )