Cops & Crime Stoppers

Blank Confession

Posted on October 1, 2013 by webmaster

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Blank Confession
by Pete Hautman

16-year-old Shayne Blank walks into a police station and announces that he has killed someone. Detective Rawls, intrigued by Shayne’s calmness, allows the teen to lead him through the entire story, right up to the murder — including his evolving relationship with Mikey Martin,who finds himself the target of a sadistic bully.

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Mikey’s troubles start when he throws away a bag of drugs forced on him for safekeeping by his sister’s drug-dealing boyfriend. Consequently, he is threatened with bodily injury unless he pays Jon $500 (the arbitrary replacement fee for the drugs). Shayne offers to help Mikey sort out his situation. But Jon is an intransigent bully who refuses to listen to reason, resulting in several confrontations between him and Shayne that culminate in a violent showdown

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
700L	High School	176	Thriller/Suspense	2011	1416913289

Name of the Star

Posted on October 1, 2013 by webmaster

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The Name of the Star (Shades of London)
by Maureen Johnson

The day that Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London to start a new life at boarding school is also the day a series of brutal murders breaks out over the city, killings mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper spree of more than a century ago. Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses.

Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him–the only one who can see him. And now Rory has become his next target.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
710L	Middle School	384	Thriller/Suspense	2011	0399256601

Heist Society

Posted on September 30, 2013 by webmaster

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Heist Society
by Ally Carter

After a childhood spent assisting her father, one of the world’s most talented art thieves, Katarina Bishop tries to leave the family business behind when she forges her way into a New England boarding school.

She quickly discovers, though, that her past is inescapable. Her father has been accused of stealing already stolen masterpieces from a dangerous Italian billionaire.

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Certain that her father is innocent, Kat resolves to find the missing paintings and return them to their unsavory owner, who has given her a two-week deadline. Carter, the author of the Gallagher Girls series, skillfully maintains suspense as Kat assembles a team of teen accomplices, travels across Europe, and plots an impossible art heist to save her dad.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
1060	High School	304	Adventure	2011	1423116615

Billionaire’s Curse

Posted on September 23, 2013 by webmaster

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The Billionaire’s Curse
by Richard Newsome

Gerald Wilkins is an Australian youth who’s the recent heir to a fortune bequeathed to him by an English aunt he barely knew. While Gerald’s giddy, irresponsible parents use his good fortune to take a Caribbean vacation, the 12-year-old stays behind in London, facing threats connected to the recent theft of a world-renowned diamond.

His attempts to piece together how his aunt’s death and the diamond are connected involves sleuthing about museums and stuffy clubs, and leads to a dastardly attempt on his life by a creepy man of overwhelming strength who smells of bleach. Luckily, twins Ruby and Sam intervene, saving the new billionaire, and the threesome become fast friends.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
690	High School	352	Adventure	2010	0061944904

Husband

Posted on September 17, 2013 by webmaster

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The Husband
by Dean Koonz

One morning, Southern California gardener Mitchell Rafferty gets a call on his cellphone from a stranger saying that Mitch’s beloved wife, Holly, has been kidnapped and that he has less than three days to come up with $2 million in cash. Of course, he’s warned not to involve the police. While Mitch is still on the phone, the kidnapper proves his seriousness by directing Mitch’s attention to a man walking a dog across the street. A moment later the man is shot dead. Mitch must walk a fine line –cooperating with the police inquiry into this murder without revealing Holly’s plight.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
910	Middle School	432	Thriller/Suspense	2012	034553333X

Picture Perfect

Posted on September 15, 2013 by webmaster

Picture Perfect
by Elaine Marie Alphin

Ian Slater’s best friend has vanished. Ian and Teddy were supposed to spend the afternoon photographing the redwoods, but Teddy never showed up. People might go missing in a big city like San Francisco, but not a little town like Sawville. Has Teddy gone in search of the father he’s never met? Or has something terrible happened to him? What is the truth behind the picture perfect image?

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Ian doesn’t know. But he’s suddenly hearing strange voices, and he keeps seeing Teddy in his dreams. Even more disturbing – he can’t quite remember everything he did on the day Teddy vanished. Now people are telling him he’s acting strangely, and the sheriff is questioning him. Ian is determined to prove – to the sheriff and to his teachers and classmates, as well as to himself -that he has nothing to hide. But the more he searches for clues to Teddy’s disappearance, the more he wonders: How well did he ever know Teddy? How well does he even know himself?

Growing up in California, I always admired the majestic redwoods. When I had the opportunity to return there for a speaking engagement, I explored them again with a friend, and thought how deceptive, and threatening, the shadowy, towering redwoods could become – and how difficult it was to capture the truth about them in a photograph. I thought how easy it would be to disappear into the mist, and how easy it was for truth to disappear into an image, and Ian and Teddy were born.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
800	Middle School	244	Drama	2003	0822505355

Son of the Mob

Posted on September 15, 2013 by webmaster

Son of the Mob
by Gordon Korman

Vince Luca, 17, has a problem. His wealthy family runs the, uh, vending machine business in New York, and Vince is determined not to be part of it. Especially after a hot date is ruined when he finds that his older brother Tommy has conducted some business with Jimmy the Rat and hidden the messy and temporarily unconscious body in the trunk of Vince’s car.

His dad, the King of the Mob, is reasonable, sensible, lots of fun, gives great presents to his kids–and his name strikes the hearts of other mobsters to stone.

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Although Vince keeps a low profile at school, his family connection brings him unwanted advantages, like the birthday Porsche that gets him arrested on stolen vehicle charges, or the football game in which he makes touchdown after touchdown because word has gotten around and nobody is willing to tackle him. Even private conversations at home have to be carried on in the basement because the FBI has bugged the house and an agent is always listening.

Vince’s life is inextricably tangled up with the family business, no matter how hard he tries to stay out of it. How can he show them he’s serious? Then he meets Kendra, and when she innocently reveals that her father’s an FBI agent–that FBI agent–it’s a match made in heaven. He thinks.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
690L	Middle School	262	Thriller/Suspense	2002	0786807695

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