Ox and the Prime-Time Kid

Ney's fourth book about affluent Palm Beach resident Ox Olmstead finds the 17-year-old aiding Mark Cartwright, a drug-addled teenager. Mark, the grandson of Ox's father's wealthy friend, has become a juvenile delinquent. The boy's unruliness stems from repressed anger at his mother Anne, whom Mark believes abandoned him and his sister after she divorced Mark's father Porter. Markwho lives with Porteryearns to confront Anne, so Ox drives him 500 miles to her home. After their hectic journey, they discover Anne has moved; Mark creates havoc in a town filled with drug smugglers; and Ox detects Mark's habit of avoiding reality by acting like literary and TV characters. The boys eventually find Anne in Florida, but Mark escapes from the detoxification center where she places him, forcing Ox to ask the aid of sinister Miami drug kingpins to locate Mark. Previous books about Ox were aimed at the young adult market, but older readers too will enjoy Ney's wry depiction of the boys' trip, and his perceptive insights into adolescence. November 25