13 year old Ava Bonney is a strange child. She has a roadkill animal body farm and documents the rate of decay in her red book. One night, she’s thinking about the body farm she found and decides to go have a look at it. This is when she stumbles upon the body of the missing boy Mickey Grant. Mickey was a bully, but Ava knows he liked cats and dogs and therefore she doesn’t hate him as much as her sister Veronica does. When Ava alerts the police she pretends to be a grown up with a posh voice.
The policeman in charge of the investigation, Seth Delahaye has never seen a murder case like this. It looks like the boy has been attacked by an animal, but the bite marks are human. Seth has also never met a girl like Ava. He asks for her help to find Mickey’s den and really values her remarks. While Seth investigates for the police, Ava and her friend John start their own investigation.
Then a second boy goes missing, the brother of one of Ava’s classmates. Ava and Veronica often went to their house and read to the little boy. It will be no surprise that Ava also discovers the body of this little boy.
I really loved this book – Ava is precocious and extremely clever, Seth appreciates her help and even brings her a present as a thank you. I twigged pretty early on who the killer was, and kept thinking no, surely not – unfortunately I was right… nevertheless, this is an excellent read.
Read for the Read Between the Lines Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 28: A Book with a Child or Adolescent Protagonist
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
