Fell Back

This book picks up where Fell left off, with Lasher, a member of Sevens (the elite club at Gardner prep school) falling to his death. Despite himself, Fell, whose father was a private investigator, gets drawn into investigating Lasher's death and the subsequent suicide of the dead boy's nemesis, Creery. At the same time, he begins tutoring Nina Deem, a townie whose father was in Sevens. Fell has his hands full with wily Nina and her obsession with Eddie, whom Mr. Deem claims is a drug dealer. The web of intrigue gets thicker and more tangled, until Fell finds the thread that connects the two deaths with Eddie and with Creery's shadowy stepbrother--and nearly loses his own life. What was so captivating about Fell was its crackling narrative and the fact that one could never tell in which direction the story was heading. Disappointingly, the spark that ignited that book seems to have fizzled out, and Fell Back , although entertaining, is just another mystery story starring a budding junior detective. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)