Even after Joe's normally loving and active mother recovers from a brutal and seemingly planned attack, she remains a depressed shadow of her former self. Fourteen year-old Joe becomes frustrated with the slow progress of the reservation's wheels of justice and enlists his friends to help him solve the crime.

As Joe and his friends come to understand the gray areas and confusing and mixed-up jurisdictions between various law enforcement agencies, he also gets closer to finding his mother's attacker.

In some ways, this book reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird, because the narrator is a teen and the reader is trying to understand what is happening, as events unfold through his eyes and he gradually learns that parents aren't perfect and adults can't always be trusted. I enjoyed this book a lot and think it would be great for a book discussion and could also be recommended to an older teen.

Recommended by Ellen J.

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