127. Autumn Bleeds into Winter – Jeff Strand

1979, Fairbanks, AK, there are children being abducted and one night after a sleepover argument goes wrong, Curtis watches his best friend Todd become one of them. And he recognizes the kidnapper – and does all the stuff he can right away to get his friend back within half an hour – call the police, get them to the rightish house only to have the right one pointed out by a neighbor. There was nothing else he could do and there he is, well aware of the responsible party, and nothing happens to find Todd or bring Mr. Martin to justice.

So, Curtis comes up with a plan. Not a good plan necessarily for someone of his limited athletic skills and level of sweatiness at the time, not to mention the lack of convenient surreptitious recording technology, but it’s a plan to get a confession. And I have to say, basically nothing went how I expected it to in this novel. I really enjoyed reading it in no small part because of that. Curtis is a fun character, he’s a chubby best friend made the main hero. And he has Tina, who is excited about a date to the real library, not the school one, which is awesome. They also have what sounded like an excellent Halloween party, even if attendance is quite limited, and also confront a child serial killer pretty effectively.

Although, my favorite scene and the one that made me laugh the loudest in this quite funny coming of age/confronting a serial killer thriller was when Curtis explains why his new English teacher is his favorite to his mom. “Wise ass,” indeed.

My most mischievous pig was Belvedere and here he is about to be confronted by his sister Pickles. Wise ass, indeed.