First Jack Fountain's mother dies of cancer after postponing treatment so her baby, Tris, could be born. Then his father is run over after two-year-old Tris accidentally moves the parking brake. Shortly after their father's death, Jack's sisters bail ithy to boarding school and Madison to her godparents' home. But Jack stays at home to watch over Tris, knowing that "Aunt" Cheryl, now ensconced in the family home, is hardly a mother figure. She then proves it by selling the Fountains' tragic story as a reality TV show. On their father's birthday, the girls are drawn home, and the siblings must put aside their hostilities to salvage their family and save their baby brother. There are many holes in this story, starting with Cheryl's ability to get custody, the unquestioning acceptance of Tris' ability to move the brake, and the TV producer's right to film without his subjects' permission. Moreover, the title gives away the twist. Despite all this, readers will be enthralled. This isn't about inconsistencies; it's about creepy (if one-dimensional) villains, page-turning action, and kids taking charge.

Readers will be unable to put down Cooney's latest thriller. Jack, 15, lives with his two-year-old brother, Tris, and his aunt, while sisters Smithy and Madison are living elsewhere. Taking place on a single day, the novel switches between the viewpoints of the older family members and a teenage neighbor. Early hints point to Tris being a controversial figure, and it is gradually revealed that he is believed to be the cause of his parents' deaths (their mother delayed chemo to give birth to him). But as the day wears on and the siblings reunite, whether or not Tris inadvertently caused their father's death (the parking brake on his Jeep was released and it rolled over him) comes into question. Additionally, a religious undertone has several characters rethinking their relationship with God. Adding to the family's misery, their aunt has arranged for their lives to become a TV “docudrama,” hosted by a man so sleazy he asks Smithy, “What was it like to realize your mother would rather die than bring you up?” Cooney masterfully ratchets up the tension in each scene and delivers fully in the exhilarating conclusion. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(May)

Cooney's new psychologically penetrating page-turner immediately grabs readers then hangs on tight up to its satisfying conclusion. Three separated orphan siblings reunite to save their little brother and themselves from a media circus; while doing so, they discover not only that their father did not die accidentally as they had thought but that there is a murderer in their midst. Since the untimely deaths of their parents received saturation coverage in the media, the Fountain children have splintered. Jack, 15, lives with his uncaring step-aunt Cheryl and his almost-three-year-old brother in the family home. Madison and Smithy, Jack's sisters, unable to cope with the notoriety, have moved away. But now Cheryl has contacted a TV producer who plans to put the family on public display, which none of them wants. The author adds depth to this fast-paced thriller by charting the siblings' difficult emotional journeys as they try to reconnect and reconfigure their familial roles, while realizing their battered but still surviving solidarity. (Thriller. 12 & up)

The Fountain children have had it bad for the past two years. Their mother became the focus of media attention when she decided to forego cancer treatment and sacrifice her own life in order to bring her last child to term. Then, at age two, the toddler Tris is involved in a driveway accident that kills his father. The ensuing media circus divides the three older siblings: one moves to a neighborÆs home, one lives in a boarding school, and one stays at home to keep an eye on Tris and a suspect relative. A manipulative, uncaring step aunt who has lived in their house since their mom died begins exerting full control over the house, eradicating any evidence of their parentsÆ presence. As their fatherÆs birthday comes and goes, all three siblings separately realize the need to reunite and reestablish their family for the sake of young Tris. When the aunt contacts a TV producer to put the family back on public display, the children know they have to nip it in the bud and expel their aunt from their home. Meanwhile evidence that the tragedy in their driveway was not an accident but an act of murder puts them all in danger. Cooney's psychological thriller holds the readerÆs attention as the resourceful youth hatch their plan. The siblingsÆ emotional conflicts are also explored as they cautiously reconnect with one another. Although the conclusion is somewhat unrealistic, the author delivers yet another exciting page turner.ùKevin Beach.

The Fountain children's father died in a freak accident allegedly caused by their baby brother. Now older brother Jack discovers Aunt Cheryl's plans to televise their grieving process on a reality show--and clues that indicate the death was no accident. By rotating perspectives, Cooney draws out the action. Anchored by a poignant sibling reunion, this family-drama/thriller will have readers racing to its conclusion.

Gr 6-9 Three orphaned teenage siblings, separated by the tragic supposed patricide of their father by their two-year-old brother, reunite a year later to save this same brother from the clutches of their evil aunt, who wants to sell them out on a tell-all television show. The plot involves a lot of aimless meandering around their small Connecticut town, the characters are unremarkable, and the title, of course, gives away the mystery, but, as with all of Cooney's novels, the joy is in readers being more clued in than the hapless characters. Thus every chapter, narrated alternately by each sibling, ends with a successful degree of suspense. Contemporary technologytexting, cell phone videos, digital photography, online bank accountsplays a weighty role; initially the reliance upon them aids each character's unhealthy distance from one another, but by the conclusion, it has become the link between them, creating laughably miraculous resolutions at every turn. A Christian theme pervades as well, as the siblings each question their relationship with God as well as with one another, and inevitably resolve both issues simultaneously. Fans of previous Cooney offerings will enjoy this, but most others can pass on it. Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library