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About the Author Time Bowler is the author of the popular Blade series for young adults, which The Horn Book called "an addictive blend of paranoia and suspense." His YA novel River Boy won the prestigious Carnegie Medal in the United Kingdom, where he lives. Product Description It starts with the phone call late at night. The mysterious boy says he is dying. Dusty doesn't want to get involved - but the boy seems to have a link to the one person who's most important to her. Soon she has been drawn in - and now she has to deal with the other people who are looking for the boy: the violent man and his two sons and the police, too.... Yet throughout all this, Dusty senses the presence of a boy who is not dying, a strange, elusive boy who can show her what happened to her missing brother and solve the greatest mystery of her life. Where he is, who he is, why he wants to die, she cannot say. Only one thing is certain. Finding him will be dangerous.
A late-night phone call from a stranger claiming to be dying pulls a young woman into a web of danger and long-buried secrets. Dusty initially attempts to distance herself from the caller, but the realization that he is connected to her missing brother forces her into a high-stakes search. She must navigate the threats posed by a violent man and his sons while evading police scrutiny. The narrative follows her perspective as she encounters a second, elusive figure who appears to hold the key to her brother's disappearance.
Readers frequently highlight the author's ability to maintain a sense of unease throughout the narrative. Discussion often centers on the ambiguity of the secondary characters and how their presence complicates the protagonist's search for truth. Critics note that the pacing effectively mirrors the protagonist's growing desperation as she uncovers layers of her family history. The balance between the immediate physical threat and the psychological mystery is a common point of analysis for those evaluating the book's structure. Many readers appreciate the way the story avoids simple resolutions in favor of a more complex exploration of loss.
Page Count:
384
Publication Date:
2006-09-07
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0192719793
ISBN-13:
9780192719799
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