Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

<EMPHASIS TYPE=""BOLD"">In this dark and consistently gripping mystery—Arnold's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Parts) first foray into YA territory—14-year-old Todd Anthony whets readers' appetites with “a list of possible first lines,” beginning with “A dead guy washed up from the river.” Set in upstate New York during the Vietnam War, Todd works at his parents' motel and spends his school days writing stories to entertain his friends. One day while biking home, he encounters a small dog; when Todd picks it up, it bites him and darts into the road where it is hit by a cement truck. He is forced to kill it—it's been too gravely wounded—and he is subsequently devastated. Todd keeps his actions secret; he writes about the incident for a school assignment, but is unable to turn it in. “I pull her closer. Feel a tiny lick on my wrist. I'm crying. Shaking. I never knew what crying really was.” While searching for the dog's owner, Todd meets Rat, a tattooed and evasive veteran only a few years older than Todd, who offers him a job at the local movie drive-in. Meanwhile, a dead body has been discovered in the nearby river and Todd begins to suspect that Rat is involved on some level. Arnold amply demonstrates his ability to write for an older crowd, spinning a suspenseful yarn with a dizzying climax that sweeps Todd off his feet—both literally and emotionally—and will likely do the same to readers. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Apr.)

ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Fourteen-year-old Todd entertains his classmates with gross-out tales, concocting crude metaphors for diarrhea ("sewer stew"), but parallels with Arnold's irreverent picture books (Parts, 2004) end there. Goofy boyhood preoccupations fade early in this ambitious first novel, in which Todd's friendship with Rat, a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, awakens the adolescent to ethical ambiguities and often-cruel realities, and pushes his writing hobby in new directions. As details about Rat's background emerge, and incidents suggest he may fit the "ticking time bomb psycho" profile of a Vietnam vet, Todd reluctantly begins to trace links between his friend and an unsolved murder. The novel's slow, introspective first half may lose some readers, and there are too many subplots, including a catastrophic flood that feels abruptly introduced and unnecessarily sensational. Even so, Arnold is an impressively adept writer; especially strong is his portrayal of Rat, who keeps readers on the knife's edge between sympathy and mistrust and whose enigmatic persona lends as much credence to the book's classification as a mystery as its more traditional gumshoe elements.

Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Fourteen-year-old Todd writes evocative, often grossly funny pieces for his creative writing assignments. He befriends sullen, idiosyncratic Vietnam veteran Rat, then begins to suspect Rat was involved in an unsolved murder. After a slow start, the mystery heats up (through the resolution comes too quickly). Todd's narration is most successful when observing small-town life and reporting on the vividly etched characters.

Kirkus Reviews

A teenaged boy's quiet life in Elmore, N.Y., in 1972 is literally swept along when a dead body surfaces in the local river and he befriends a quirky young Vietnam vet. When 14-year-old Todd isn't making beds and doing chores at his family's motel, he writes stories about aliens. Chance connects him with 17-year-old Rat, a mysterious Vietnam vet who works at the local drive-in theatre and offers Todd a summer job. Eager for pocket money and strangely drawn to the taciturn Rat, Todd accepts. Gradually, Todd tries to get Rat to tell his story and wonders if Rat is connected to the murdered man in the river. As Todd unravels the mystery of Rat's life, he must decide whether to trust his own instincts or avoid Rat because he's a "ticking time bomb." Realistically and sensitively written as Todd's own manuscript, this entertaining and thoughtful account is an absorbing snapshot of early 1970s life, as well as fast-paced coming-of-age fare that should appeal to young male readers. (author's note) (Fiction. 12-17)

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10-Despite a slow start, this is a solid story set in the early 1970s, with a likable main character and a thrilling climax. Readers will sympathize with Todd, a creative, sensitive boy who helps his parents run a motel in upstate New York and dreams of becoming a writer. When he crosses paths with Rat, a moody young Vietnam veteran, he gets a job at the drive-in theater where Rat works, and finds himself fascinated by the young man, who is compelling but possibly dangerous. Todd begins to wonder if his new friend might have something to do with the unidentified body pulled out of the river. However, the mystery builds quietly as other elements take precedence, including Todd's encounter with an abandoned puppy and the subsequent rabies shots he must endure, his resentment over chores at the motel, his struggles to write a story for English class, and his grandmother's deteriorating mental condition. When the river floods, both Todd and Rat are caught up in the disaster, and the truth comes out at last. The final chapters are riveting, but readers hoping for a fast-paced mystery might be disappointed by the leisurely unfolding of events up to that point. More patient readers will enjoy the details of small-town life and identify with Todd's preoccupations and yearnings.-Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Voice of Youth Advocates

Fledgling writer Todd's repertoire primarily consists of short stories in which his friends and teachers meet gruesome scatological fates. But after his teacher gets hold of one-about her-and makes a few critical red marks suggesting that she actually likes his writing style, Todd begins to look around his environment with new eyes, especially after he puts a puppy out of its misery when it gets hit by a truck on the highway. The son of a couple of motel managers in 1970s America, Todd goes from maintaining the drinks machine to helping out Rat, a mysterious Vietnam veteran not much older than himself, at the local drive-through theater. This book bills itself as mystery, but to the author's credit, the story and characters are more interesting than those in a simple whodunit. Rather than joining in with the sleuthing, readers sit back and watch Todd, Rat, and the other characters grow and take shape before their eyes. Todd is on a journey of self-discovery, as an adolescent and as an author, and kudos to Arnold for putting Rat's war experiences in context with his surroundings and the feelings of the country at the time. The book never quite falls into thriller category, but that is a good thing. The fascinating action is so character driven that it is never necessary to try to put readers on the edge of their seats. Odds are good that they are already there.-Matthew Weaver.