Notorious

Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Keenan has lived all over the world but nowhere quite as strange as Centerlight Island, which is split between the United States and Canada. The only thing weirder than Centerlight itself is his neighbor Zarabeth, aka ZeeBee. ZeeBee is obsessed with the island’s history as a Prohibition-era smuggling route. She’s also convinced that her beloved dog, Barney, was murdered—something Keenan finds pretty hard to believe. Just about everyone on Centerlight is a suspect, because everyone hated Barney, a huge dog—part mastiff, part rottweiler—notorious for terrorizing the community. Accompanied by a mild-mannered new dog who is practically Barney’s opposite, ZeeBee enlists Keenan’s help to solve the mystery.

As Keenan and ZeeBee start to unravel the clues, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that dates back to Centerlight’s gangster past. The good news is that Keenan may have found the best friend he’s ever had. The bad news is that the stakes are sky-high. And now someone is after them. . .

Nothing like mixing gangster history, small-town boredom, the mystery of hidden gold and typical preteen pranks.

Although the secondary character's ornery and victim-mentality personality wore thin after a while, and the middle sagged a bit, mostly this is a fun read. The setting—a small island with the Canadian-US border drawn down the middle—is amusing. The ending especially showcases Korman's talent for bringing it all together super-smoothly and yet unpredictably.

-P.W.