Dead Connection - Hardcover

Price, Charlie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596431148 ISBN 13: 9781596431140

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2006

Synopsis

Murray, a loner who communes with the dead in the town cemetery, hears the voice of a murdered cheerleader and tries to convince the adults that he knows what happened to her. But who beleives him? He's a loser. Can he even beleive in himself? Also comes Pearl, the daughter of the cemetery caretaker, who befriends Murray and tries to enter his world. Together they may prove the astonishing possibility that Nikki is closer than anyone thinks.

"Dead Connection is a smart, funny, very clever page turner; unique and fun to read. As much as I wanted the mystery solved, I didn't want it to end. You're going to like this book." --Chris Crutcher

About this title

About the Author

Charlie Price is an executive coach and consultant, an avid reader, a pretty fair free-throw shooter, and a hopelessly addicted fly fisherman. He lives in Redding, California, with his family. This is his first book.

Reviews

Grade 8 Up-Teenage loner Murray Kiefer has found comfort and companionship by visiting with the dead in his local cemetery. Schoolmate Pearl is more outgoing and confident; she lives with her widowed father, the caretaker of the cemetery. A third teen, cheerleader Nikki Parker, has disappeared, and everyone speculates about whether she'll be found alive. Price weaves the stories of these characters-and those of a drunken cop, a trusting and loyal father, and a jaded but smart detective-into a murder mystery with compelling psychological and spiritual overtones. Neither Pearl nor Murray is interested in befriending the other but eventually a relationship develops. How long it will take the good cop to catch up with the bad one-and just how bad the latter might be-keeps the tension high. The cemetery setting and Murray's sensitivity to the dead aren't ghoulish, nor are these details played for laughs. At the same time, the teen's social awkwardness elicits sympathy in readers. He is simply who he is and is able to know just a little something about which others seem less aware, while being in the dark about things that his peers take for granted. Pearl is strong and eventually admirable as she gains respect for Murray. The degradation of the drunken cop adds a gritty edge to a story where most (but not all) of the violence takes place offstage. This will be an easy sell to mystery readers, and will have lots of appeal to those familiar with that genre only through television or movies.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gr. 9--12. Nikki is dead----and she's angry that her killer has hidden her where she won't be found. Enter Murray, a high-school student who likes to sit in the cemetery and listen to what the dead have to say. In fact, on his own tombstone he would like the words friend to the deceased. So begins this mystery, with a conclusion that's inevitable, but twists and turns that are not. Each brisk chapter is told from the point of view of one of the many characters. Interestingly, most of the main characters are adults: Deputy Gates, who has personal reasons for solving the crime; Robert Barry Compton, an ex-con who witnessed the crime; Janockek, Pearl's understanding father; and Billup, the frustrated public affairs officer. By delving into the adults' problems as they meld with the mystery of Nikki's disappearance, Price has given the book an adult veneer. Readers will like the edginess and be intrigued by the extrasensory elements as well as the darker turns the mystery takes. This is something different. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1596431148
• ISBN 13: 9781596431140
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240