A review by chadstep
Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks

5.0

I don't consider myself a mystery reader but this truly grabbed me. It lacked the qualities I dislike in mysteries--the intrepid investigator goodie-goodie/outsider, missing scenes that "hide" a way for the reader to discover the truth, the feeling I get like when I am being les through a maze like a mouse to cheese--which have been part of my reading past that make them boring or distasteful or like trying to scramble up a solid wall without hope.

Black Rabbit Summer had youth, class divisions, English law enforcement, boredom, and even occult-ish aspects that made it enticing. Great one-step-ahead of the law/media feeling and the suspicion of youth which is, of course, misread by the adult community, especially the innocence-gone-wrong moments throughout that definitely made me think, "yeah, that could have been me and my friends" in a fictionalized way. Very trim dialogue and not too much preachy, moralizing. Thanks, Kevin, for making me come back to mysteries.