Carl Deuker is a celebrated author of "top flight sports writing matched to uncommonly perceptive coming of age stories" (Kirkus Reviews). He describes his younger self as a classic second stringer: "I was too slow and too short for basketball; I was too small for football, a little too chicken to hang in there against the best fastballs. So, by my senior year the only sport I was still playing was golf." He was a teacher for many years in the Seattle area, where he now lives with his wife. carldeuker.ag sites.net/bio.htm

"The sports and suspenseful action will easily draw readers, as will the gripping adventure's deeper issues of crime, class, ineffectual parents, and a teen's questions about his uncertain future." Booklist, ALA

"Writing in a fast-paced, action-packed, but at the same time reflective style, Deuker uses fewer sports scenes than in his previous novels, and instead uses running as a hook to entice readers into a perceptive coming-of-age novel." School Library Journal

"Fast-paced and suspenseful." Horn Book

Publisher: Clarion Books

Pub date: 2007-04-23

Length: 224 pages