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Theodore Boone: The Abduction

Strattenburg’s very own 13-year-old lawyer is back again for the second installment in John Grisham’s very first series for children.  This time, Theo’s best friend April has vanished, and no one in town knows where she has gone.  Was she murdered?  Kidnapped by a criminal?  Did she run away?  When the adults in the town cannot answer these questions, Theo must take matters into his own hands and solve his friend’s disappearance himself.  In the first book, Grisham’s no-nonsense writing style was unobtrusive and moved the storyline along swiftly.  Unfortunately, in this sequel, the writing feels rushed and sloppy, and the plot is uneven.  Why, for example, is a random scene in which Theo saves a classmate’s parrot from execution in animal court inserted into an otherwise straightforward mystery plot?  For all the tension build up in the beginning, the ending is anti-climactic, and the courtroom drama (Grisham’s forte) is an afterthought instead of the centerpiece of the novel.  Fans of the first book will probably be satisfied with the sequel, but as a stand-alone, Theodore Boone: The Abduction is unremarkable.