England
is a land of opposites.
Readers have a choice between the lighthearted world of
say, P.G. Wodehouse, on the one hand or the bleak view of someone like Charles
Dickens on the other. Kevin Brooks'' novel for teens, The Road of the
Dead,
takes the darker perspective. The son of a gypsy languishing in prison, Reuben
Ford lives in a London
auto junkyard with his mother,
brother and
sister, trying to get by. Life is
hard, but death is even harder, and when his sister is brutally raped and
murdered, he and his brother journey to an isolated village in the desolate
moors of the south to find answers that the police won''t provide.
Reuben''s 17-year-old brother Cole reluctantly lets his younger sibling accompany
him. Cole has vengeance on his mind, and Reuben—at his mother''s urging—is going
to make sure the gun Cole has in his
backpack stays in his backpack.
Reuben is scared, though, because he knows his sister''s killer is already dead,
and he doesn''t know how Cole will be able to find a dead man. Reuben knows this
because he''s psychic.
Reuben''s supernatural
abilities seem appropriate considering the setting. Dartmoor is a desolate place, with lonely windswept
plains and giant stones, or tors, sticking out of the ground like the
gravestones of giants. The boys'' destination, the village of Lychcombe,
is straight out of a Conan Doyle novel, with suspicious, belligerent townsfolk,
a group of gypsies camped outside town for no apparent reason and a mysterious
landowner who seems to control everything. It will take all of Cole''s
aggressive snooping and Reuben''s "special" abilities to find the
person—or people—responsible for their sister''s death.
The Road of the Dead is a gripping murder mystery that will appeal to
teen readers who appreciate dark, atmospheric stories and can handle the gritty
nature of Brooks'' tale, which includes coarse language and brutal violence.
Already a rising star in young adult fiction for novels such as Lucas
and Kissing the Rain, Brooks adds another compelling entry to his
impressive body of work.
More reviews about the THE ROAD OF THE DEAD