A thrilling, fast-paced, high octane story that is brilliantly spun out by the queen of teen thrillers Cathy Macphail as she captures how Leo gets caught up in the terrifying gang warfare that rules his town in Scotland. Leo and his best friend Sean are cool streetwise boys; they love a thrill but they know how to keep themselves safe. But when Leo witnesses a cold bloodied murder he’s quickly swept out of his depth. Determined not to grass he finds himself trapped. Soon he is pulled deep into violence and danger knowing all the time that he must keep what he knows secret. So gripping and page-turning is the plot that even the most reluctant reader will feel compelled to read on and on.
It would have been hard to have missed what was written on the wall. Painted in giant whitewashed letters: 'SHARKEY IS A GRASS'. I hadn't a clue who Sharkey was, but I knew one thing.
'Sharkey's a dead man,' I said. Leo knows the value of never grassing and that you never grass on your friends. Everybody, too, knows the gang leaders in town.
And you don't grass on them. Not unless you don't value your life - like Sharkey. And then Leo is unlucky enough to witness the murder of one gang leader by another, a man called Armour.
Leo is petrified as he realises what he is witnessing and even more petrified when he realises that Armour has seen him. Sure that he is drawing his own last breath, Leo silently says goodbye to his family and everybody he knows. But all Armour does is wink at Leo, very slowly, and leave the scene of the crime.
Leo draws a long breath of relief. He has got away with it. But he hasn't - not really.
Leo will live to regret that wink and realise that Armour has an insidious hold on him and his family,which will test his family relationships, and his very sense of what is right and wrong. It will take bravery, luck and sheer daring to extricate himself from Armour's deadly web.
Scottish author Catherine McPhail won the Kathleen Fidler Award for her first novel, Run Zan Ran, which she wrote after her daughter Katie was bullied at school. Catherine now loves writing for children.
Asked what she'd do if she wasn't a writer, she says: "If I wasn't paid to write, I'd still write books. What do I do in my spare time? I write. What is my hobby? Writing. I just love it. So, what would I be if I wasn't a writer? Bored stiff. "
Catherine is the author of the heart-stopping and highly original crime thrillers Nemesis Boys in particular will be drawn to the whole package – the dramatic cover look, the short time frame in which all four thrillers are set, the short, pacy chapters, the cliff hangers and the dynamic, independent, resourceful boy hero.
Nemesis is the junior Bourne Identity so parents who are fans of Robert Ludlum’s writing will appreciate just how good and suitable the Nemesis quartet is for their late tween and teen offspring.
