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Book details
  • Genre:FICTION
  • SubGenre:Coming of Age
  • Language:English
  • Pages:113
  • eBook ISBN:9781483594675

Suspicion

by A Neville

Book Image Not Available Book Image Not Available
Overview
Suspicion A Mystery for Young Adults When Mr Bennett, Head Teacher of Trenwith High School, dies in mysterious circumstances, suspicion falls on 18 year old JOE MERCER. Joe is the epitome of a young hooligan—permanently excluded from Trenwith High School, always hiding behind his hoodie, except for when he’s hooning around on his motor bike. Then it’s his full-face helmet that provides his camouflage. But did he really do it? His best friends, wannabe professional rugby player SEB HOWELL, whose smile can make girls lose their balance, and Seb’s girlfriend EMILY BENNETT, the principal’s daughter, think not and set out to prove him innocent. Joe is charged with Mr Bennett’s murder and, while in prison, he realises his feelings for his childhood friend, Emily, have grown from ‘brotherly’ love to something more. But Emily is Seb’s girlfriend and Joe knows he must respect that. Besides, Emily would never want to be with a loser like him. As Emily’s pen tattoos reach further and further up her arms, their suspicions lead them to her mother. She, like Joe, has motive and opportunity. And neither of them can, or will, account for their whereabouts at the time of Mr Bennett’s death. The case is complicated further when another family member confesses to being involved. It is not until the final harrowing court scene that the truth of their suspicions is exposed and the murderer’s identity revealed.
Description

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

A. Neville’s young adult coming of age mystery novel, Suspicion, blends a compelling story about teenage alienation with a first-rate police procedural mystery as the police investigate the murder of a high school principal. I was enthralled by this book. Joe’s story is unique and unforgettable. His disadvantaged background and expulsion for smoking pot and other minor infractions, which seemed arbitrary and ultimately at cross-purposes with his future well-being, contrast with the person the reader gets to know through his story. A person who sees Emily as an unattainable goal, someone who would never stoop to be more than a friend. “He really liked her, not in a ‘Wow, she’s hot’ way, but somewhere in his bones, somewhere he couldn’t see but could feel that made him stronger, better, braver.” As I read that description, whole worlds of insights opened up for me into this boy who was turning into a man under harsh conditions, and his passage is made even more perilous when he’s accused of murdering Emily’s father. The police procedural aspects of this story are first-rate. You can feel the despair and fear Joe feels as he spends that first night in prison and fights both his fears and the officers’ persuasive techniques while asserting his right to counsel. Suspicion is a powerful and moving novel, and it’s most highly recommended.

About the author

A Neville has, in previous lives, been a nurse and a secondary school teacher in various towns in New Zealand and the UK. She has produced a number of resources for the education sector. Anti-Bullying Guides for teachers, parents and children are her most recent publications. Her fiction book ‘Batjack’, for 9 to 13 year olds, was short-listed for the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2011. Currently, Ann is the Managing Director of a small boutique publishing company, CreateBooks. She also facilitates courses for children in writing, illustrating and publishing their own books, and for adults in writing techniques.