The Underdogs

March 7, 2016
Evie, 12, and her best friend Chelsea, spend their summers on the periphery of the social scene at the tony New England pool/tennis club where their parents work. Both from single-parent homes, the girls bond over being social outcasts because of their physical differences. Evie is shy and slightly overweight while Chelsea is still recovering from the abuse she suffered years before being adopted by her mother, Beth. The girls usually spend their summers hiding in the cool, dark corners of the club eating snacks, but this year is different. Evie begins to secretly train to play tennis, and 16-year-old Annabel Harper, the golden girl of the club, is found murdered at the pool. Determined to discover who could do this to a young woman both girls admired, Evie and Chelsea decide to help the police solve the crime. Told from Chelsea’s perspective in chapters that alternate before and after Annabel’s murder, debut novelist Hammel cleverly disguises Chelsea’s true identity, leaving that mystery for readers to solve just as the girls pinpoint Annabel’s killer. Ages 10–14. Agent: Steven Chudney, Chudney Agency.

March 1, 2016
Best friends try to figure out who murdered a pretty 16-year-old girl at a tennis club. Evie, 12, and her best friend, narrator Chelsea, spend their summer hanging out together at the Boston-area tennis club where Evie's father works as a tennis pro and Chelsea's mother manages the desk. Both are wounded souls with distressing back stories. Evie, who's fat and bullied, is living with her indifferent dad because her mother deserted her; Chelsea was horrifically abused before being adopted. Because both protagonists are club fixtures and largely invisible to the campers and elite tennis players, they manage to secretly shadow the detective responsible for solving the murder and the various suspects as well. A strong subplot concerns Evie's transformation from a fat, angry outcast to a thinner tennis whiz. About halfway through the novel, readers should begin to notice various discrepancies--things that don't quite scan or make complete sense. This feeling continues to increase until the end, when a doozy of a revelation changes the way readers perceive everything that came before. The twist is not 100-percent fair, and there will be a few pages of puzzlement before readers get the aha, but it certainly clears up the incongruities. Chelsea describes the people around her, mostly white, but she avoids touching on her own appearance, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. The novel is absorbing and enjoyable, but readers' feelings about this oddball mystery/life-transformation hybrid will depend on whether they're delighted or annoyed by the surprise ending. (Mystery. 10-14)

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February 1, 2016

Gr 6-10-The big reveal in this mystery is not who murdered golden girl Annabel Harper at an exclusive Massachusetts tennis club-though that's startling enough. No, there's actually a far bigger surprise. In alternating chapters, narrator Chelsea fills readers in on all that happened the weeks before Annabel was found dead by the side of the club's pool, and after, as a local detective examined motives and opportunities among rising teen tennis stars, rich kids, and club personnel. Annabel was a fixture at the club, where her older brother was a lifeguard, and was especially nice to Chelsea and her best friend, Evie. Beautiful and sweet, Annabel attracted a great deal of attention and jealousy. But who could have disliked her enough to murder her? As with most good cozies, the suspects are numerous and the detective is tenacious. He has to be-as Evie and Chelsea follow him around and make dangerous discoveries on their own. Meanwhile, Evie, who is teased for being overweight, discovers she has a natural gift for tennis, though her tennis pro father seems not to notice. Readers learn more about Chelsea's mysterious and abusive past before the club's manager adopted her. The plot is well-thought-out, and though there isn't a great deal of character development, except in Evie's case, there doesn't have to be for this mystery to score. VERDICT Once they get to the end, mystery lovers will want to go back and read it all again to find the hidden clues.-Marie Drucker, Malverne Public Library, NY

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