ALA Booklist (Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Josh Williams doesn't mind having a beer at the barn where his brother's biker gang, the Annihilators, hangs out, especially between working out at the gym and getting ready for football season. But things get hairy when, late one night, Josh sees his brother about to beat up the local meth cook. When the cook ends up dead and Josh's brother lands himself in jail, Josh has to decide how entangled he wants to get in his small town's gang problems (another gang, the Popeyes, wants to take over) and how far he'll go to free his brother. Thankfully, Josh is good at getting various sketchy people to talk to him, and he has some good adults on his side. In short, choppy chapters, Edwards crafts a clear mystery, but Josh's inner emotions need work. Some of his reactions, like when he sends a smiley emoji an hour after witnessing a bombing, are jarring. Still, a fresh setting and strong plot make this Canadian import a quick read, with only a few loose ends.

School Library Journal (Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Gr 9 Up-eventeen-year-old Josh Williams's football career is on the line the summer after a knee injury. While he should be taking the summer building his strength at the gym, he is instead pulled into the high-risk world of Canadian motorcycle clubs when his brother, Jamie, a member of the Annihilators, is jailed on suspicion of murder. And not just any murder, but the murder of Trent, the meth-cooking brother of the love of Josh's life, Brenda. Josh and his mother don't have the funds to spring for a proper defense; dangerous situations and deadly cover-ups infiltrate Josh's efforts to secure a lawyer and prove Jamie's innocence. While a potentially exciting murder mystery in a not-often-explored facet of rural Canadian lifestyle, this novel falls flat. Josh and his contemporaries do not read like teens, or even as friends and love interests, but as one-dimensional plot pawns with very little development or even purpose, including within their relationships with each other. Adult characters often provide necessary plot advancement when convenient, as well as explanations of rural Canadian life (such as mentioning the racist connotation of the Confederate flag), but still don't provide much compelling purpose beyond the mystery. Flat narration leads to what ultimately ends up to be an anticlimactic and almost too-tidy conclusion of an overall shallow look into Canadian biker clubs. VERDICT Not recommended for purchase.Brittany Drehobl, Morton Grove Public Library, IL

Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Seventeen-year-old Josh Williams is about to start his senior year of high school in the small city of St. Thomas, Ontario. Although he is a clean-living football player, Josh has a connection to the local motorcycle club and superficial acquaintance with some shady characters through his older brother, Jamie. But when Jamie becomes a suspect in the murder of Trent Wallace, the local club’s methamphetamine “cooker,” Josh uncovers more than he ever wanted to know about the sinister operations of rival drug gangs as he searches for evidence to prove his brother’s innocence. Josh’s attraction to Trent’s sister, Brenda, further complicates what becomes a murder mystery, as well as a tour of the seamy side of biking culture. Edwards, crime reporter for the Toronto Star, has written several adult-market books on organized crime, particularly concerning motorcycle gangs. He notes that although Canada is often regarded as an almost boringly safe country, its motorcycle gangs have a history of violence, largely generated by competition for shares of a lucrative drug market. Here, in his first novel for young adults, Edwards presents a broad range of believable biker characters—from peaceable older members with families to recklessly dangerous young toughs willing to commit murder for the chance to rise in gang hierarchy. This first-person narration by a plain-spoken, straightforwardly masculine teen would be a good choice for reluctant male readers.—Walter Hogan.