The Spying Game

Like his mother and two siblings, narrator Joe Harris, 12, has been devastated by his dad's recent death in an auto accident. But unlike them, Joe decides to take action. Specifically, he starts spying on Mr. Moss, who was charged with the death, and even gets a newspaper delivery route so he can go to the Mosses' house. When Mr. Moss is exonerated by the court, Joe decides to punish his father's ""killer"" with a steadily escalating campaign of harassment. It's a hollow victory when the Mosses abruptly disappear, but then Alex Moss turns up in Joe's homeroom at his new school. Events quickly spiral out of control when their classmates, particularly two violent bullies, peg Alex as the son of a murderer. Joe ultimately discovers that more was going on in the Moss family than met his eyes, and that Alex--and even Mr. Moss--are not what he'd thought them to be. British writer Moon convincingly uses youthful jargon (including a smattering of Britishisms) and an accretion of telling detail to evoke Joe's feelings of grief, rage and loss. Her delicately nuanced tale illustrates how love and understanding are better healers than hate and revenge. Ages 10-up. (July)