Reviewed by Krista Mckeeth
LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep—witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city’s most exclusive prep schools.
Gregory’s mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen—evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student—a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.
Before it’s over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return
This story is evenly divided between the perspectives of Lieutenant Decker and fifteen year old Gabe, both personalities come off as pretty relaxed and easy going, until a problem hits. Then they are on their toes and fast thinkers.
I enjoyed the fact that even at the age of fifteen, Gabe was a very intelligent boy, but like most teenage boys the thought of sex drives most of his storyline. I believe that the relationship that slowly builds between Yasmine (14) and Gabe (15) was incredibly romantic. Although in the more mature scenes between them, I had a hard time picturing her as visually looking “10-12″ years old (as she is described by the author). The connection they had together from their love of music, piano, opera was a nice pace of story to break up the intense detective work that the lieutenant was going through.
The Lieutenant and his staff are working to figure out how the boy that committed suicide got the gun. This detective work, along with the additional suicide of a girl that attended the same school, starts to trigger more questions. As the deceased teenagers property starts to turn up missing the school and it’s students are getting inspected further and further as they try to connect the missing links.
There is very clearly a gang of students that stand out and the only question is why is there a “mafia” group at a prestigious high school, and what is their involvement with guns and drugs.
The story raps up with some very dangerous Gun Games. With a combination of sex, drugs, gangs and guns this story reads like a gangster movie.
- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition first Printing edition (January 3, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0062064320
- ISBN-13: 978-0062064325
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