Killer Pizza

In screenwriter Taylor's entertaining, if ephemeral, debut novel and B-movie takeoff, 14-year-old Toby Magill gets a summer job at the new Killer Pizza franchise in town (specialties include the “Fangtastic Hawaiian” and “Vampire Stakes”), where he hopes to hone his own cooking skills to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous chef. After a few enjoyable weeks, he and his fellow employees, the intelligent Annabel and the gruff Strobe, learn that Killer Pizza is a front for a secret organization that hunts monsters. The teens soon embark on a training course to become Monster Combat Officers, learning the ways of the strange creatures known as guttatas that are terrorizing their small town. Taylor keeps the action coming at a brisk pace, though there's never a real sense of true danger—even the teens mutated by the guttatas in the opening scenes are rescued. Older readers might question some plot holes (not to mention the idea of recruiting young kids to fight monsters), but most will find the book a fun diversion. Ages 10–14. (June)