What Happened to Cass McBride? » (Reprint)

Gail Giles is the acclaimed author of several psychological drama/suspense novels for teens, including Shattering Glass, Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, and Playing in Traffic (Roaring Brook hardcover, Simon Pulse paperback). Shattering Glass was an ALA Best of the Best Book (one of the best 100 books for young readers of the decade), an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Quick Pick for Young Readers, a Booklist Top Ten Mystery for Youth, and received starred reviews in Booklist and Kirkus.

Kyle Kirby has planned a cruel and unusual revenge on Cass McBride, the most popular girl in school, for the death of his brother David. He digs a hole. Drugs Cass. Kidnaps her. Puts her in a box-underground. He buries her alive. But Kyle makes a fatal error: Cass knows the power of words. She uses fear as her weapon to keep her nemesis talking - and to keep herself breathing during the most harrowing 48 hours of her life.

A vivid, complex, and insightful work of suspense, this fast-paced psychological thriller is "Gail Giles at her best" says Mary E. Pearson, author of A Room on Lorelei Street.

Janis Flint-Ferguson - KLIATT

Through the voices of three key characters, Giles creates a truly suspenseful story of suicide and revenge. Cass is a popular high school student with a smart mouth. Kyle blames Cass for the death of his brother, so he kidnaps her and plans to torture her by burying her alive. But Cass already is tortured by her conscience. What unfolds is the interaction between Kyle and Cass, and the events in both their lives that led up to the kidnapping. Add to their story Ben Gray, the police detective assigned to the case when Cass is reported missing. He meets with Cass's mother and her father and works to find Cass. He also meets with Kyle's mother and father, and his investigation reveals the story of two sets of parents with hopes for their children and unfulfilled aspirations for themselves. Their stories add motivation as well as background to the events taking place between Kyle and Cass. It is not until Cass's best friend is interviewed that the story of Cass and Kyle takes shape for Gray. The setting is claustrophobic, the characters are complex and the story will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The novel culminates in an ending that is both realistic and ambiguous in a Robert Cormier kind of way. This tale of a tense emotional situation includes graphic scenes and adult language. KLIATT Codes: S*--Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students. 2006, Little, Brown, 212p., $16.99.. Ages 15 to 18.