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Acceleration

by Graham McNamee

Seventeen-year-old Duncan is spending his summer cataloguing lost junk in the Toronto Transit Commission’s subterranean Lost and Found. He’s going stir-crazy down in the “Dungeon” but he’s also escaping a heat wave and gets to sift through mounds of stuff for additions to “the Duncan collection” – a black leather jacket, great shades, and more. Then he finds a brown leather journal that seems to be the personal history of a serial killer in the making. After an attempt to get local police to take an interest in the journal fails, Duncan decides to use its clues to try to track down the potential killer himself.

Caught up in his desire to stop a killer, Duncan also hopes to put to rest the ghosts of a personal tragedy he can’t seem to escape. With a little help from his friends, he manages to pick up the trail and find his man, but suspense builds as readers wonder whether he can stop him in time.

Graham McNamee’s Acceleration certainly lives up to the promise of its title and then some. It’s a perfectly paced thriller that propels the reader through the story at break-neck speed. At the same time, it paints emotionally charged portraits of Duncan and his friends, which give the novel real depth. McNamee’s teens are trying to come to terms with themselves as they make their way out of childhood – and it’s not easy. Duncan’s substantial struggle to come to terms with his own ghosts yields a satisfyingly full resolution. Acceleration is more than just a great mystery. It’s a great teen novel, chock full of dry humour, angst, and explorations of popular culture – one character wittily describes the hunt for the killer as “the Hardy Boys meet Hannibal Lecter.”

 

Reviewer: Jeffrey Canton

Publisher: Delacorte/Random House

DETAILS

Price: $23.95

Page Count: 212 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 0-385-73119-1

Issue Date: 2003-8

Categories:

Age Range: ages 13+