The Third Degree: Huru-hara Pesta Dansa

Chloe & Levesque #1

by Norah McClintock

Pesta Dansa Musim Semi akan segera tiba di sekolah Earl Baron!

Tiga bersaudara, Chloe, Brynn, dan Phoebe, begitu bersemangat mempersiapkan diri. Namun, keceriaan mereka terganggu oleh hadirnya seorang detektif kriminal kepolisian, Paul Levesque—calon suami ibu mereka.

Levesque menemukan bukti saat menyelidiki kasus penganiayaan, dan salah seorang dari tiga gadis itu adalah tersangkanya!

Benarkah tuduhan itu?

Siapakah pelaku sebenarnya?

Apakah Chloe, Brynn, dan Phoebe bisa menghadiri pesta dansa bergengsi itu bersama-sama?

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Canada, Teen, Contemporary, Crime, Middle Grade

252 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

Norah McClintock’s fascinating mysteries are hard to put down. Her Chloe & Levesque series, Mike & Riel series, and Robyn Hunter series, all published by Scholastic Canada, have been popular with readers in many countries. Norah has also written several crime novels for reluctant readers in the Orca Soundings series from Orca Book Publishers,

Norah is a five-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Novel. Read Mistaken Identity, The Body in the Basement, Sins of the Father, Scared to Death, and Break and Enter to find out why! Norah's books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she has won numerous awards.

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award - Juvenile
o 1996 – Mistaken Identity – Winner
o 1998 – The Body in the Basement – Winner
o 1999 – Sins of the Father – Winner
o 2002 – Scared to Death – Winner
o 2003 – Break and Enter – Winner

Red Maple Award
o 2004 – Hit and Run – Winner

Reviews

[Sakshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The series in itself if basic mystery and crime solving, this is the first book and it’s an introduction to the characters. The book is well enough but the reason I really loved the series was because of the relationship that builds between Chloe and Levesque. Levesque is basically a police officer who fixes this...estranged (?) family. I say estranged because you can see that the girls don’t have much of a bond with each other.

[Jason Abdul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pertama kali kubeli buku ini di tahun 2006. Seingatku, aku sedikit kecewa tidak menemukan alur standar kisah detektif yang seru. Novel ini berkisar ke peristiwa menjelang pesta dansa saja, tipikal cerita remaja romantis malah. Salahku juga, aku tidak tahu kalau ini buku pertama dari serial Chloe Cewek Detektif. Aku tidak membeli buku selanjutnya karena terlanjur kehilangan antusiasme.

Setelah membacanya kembali, aku menikmatinya sebagai bacaan ringan tapi punya topik "berat" di dalamnya. Beberapa di antaranya:

Rasisme: Chloe setengah China, tapi dia sulit mengakui itu, terutama jika dia berada di antara teman kulit putihnya. Dia malah mempermalukan cowok China yang hanya ingin mengajaknya ke pesta dansa.

Interpersonal: Brynn rela kebahagiaannya hilang demi kebahagiaan temannya sendiri, padahal menurutku teman Brynn itu egois sekali.

Kesehatan mental: Phoebe punya tubuh gemuk, bahkan Chloe, kakaknya sendiri, merundungnya. Chloe jadi punya keinginan kurus dan melakukan diet yang menyiksa.

Awalnya aku terganggu semua tokoh utama memiliki sifat menyebalkan, tapi ya novel juga berguna untuk menjadi cermin.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Third Degree, we meet Chloe and her two half sisters, Phoebe and Brynn. We also meet their single mother, Sheila, who is rarely home at night because she is either working or out with one of several different men. None of the females in this family are easy to like. None of the sisters seem to care at all about each other or their mother. They make all their decisions and base all of their happiness on the males in their lives. The only likable character in the story is Louis Levesque who is a police detective that starts dating Sheila halfway through the story. Levesque gently coaxes each female into making better decisions based on what is best for them, rather than what is best for someone else.

This is the first book in a series of mysteries involving Chloe and Levesque. Even though this book does not include much mystery, it does introduce us to these characters and provides enough drama and conflict to hold the readers' interest. Overall, a descent story with characters that have lots of room for growth throughout the series.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three sisters worry about boys in a rather dull one. One stresses over being fat, one pants after a loser and gets involved in an assault, and the third would rather study but has to deal with a cute boy who doesn't think "no" applies to him. As I agree that the studious girl does need to concentrate on her exams, the careless girl is losing herself by chasing after crappy boys, and the fat girl is setting herself up for a lifelong eating disorder, it all seems rather trim.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3 stars

[Rants and Bants · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book basically reminded me of Beverly Hills. 90s teen drama (only this time taking place in Canada rather than BH) with REALLY unlikeable characters. The only characters that were alright were Phoebe, Levesque, and Philomen. So of course, they’re treated the shittiest, isn’t that standard procedure? Brynn I guess wasn’t too bad either, but I was annoyed that her story consisted of nothing but being pushed around by her dumb bitchy friend Edie, who apparently gets to dictate who Brynn can and can’t speak to or hang out with (hello abusive friendships, we meet again), and how she wouldn’t listen to Evan’s side of the story, because it sounded like Edie forced him into a relationship. But I guess it’s okay because while abusing girls is wrong, abusing guys is cool, right? Granted, Evan was annoying too, in that he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and no means no, regardless of the circumstances or how unfair you think it is. He even said, “I’m going to keep trying”, which is basically a threat. As someone who has dealt with people continuously bothering after I’ve told them how it is, and making more unwelcome advances after I made it clear that I wasn’t interested, I can’t stand these kind of people.

And for the fucking love of god…GIRLS AND GUYS CAN HANG OUT WITH EACH OTHER AND TALK AND WALK AND LAUGH AND JOKE AROUND, WITHOUT IT BEING SOME ROMANTIC THING. STOP GETTING JEALOUS SO EASILY. FUCK.

And finally, the greatest tragedy of them all…Chloe. Who of course is the main character, go figure. Because we have to have the biggest bitch be also the most important person, right? (Btw, what is with all these annoying female characters that get to have nice names? Chloe, Mia, Brenda, Zoey, Tessa, etc.) Chloe isn't quite as bad as those other ones, but she comes pretty damn close. She is spoiled, selfish, bratty, mean, rude, obnoxious, and also kind of racist. Yep, I said it. First she bitches and complains about some nice guy who likes her, describing him as “some stupid Chinese guy right off the plane” and criticizes his accent, then turns around and acts like a hypocrite if people so much as ask her questions, just because she herself is Asian. THEN, when she finds out that the guy she likes has a racist father, she goes and does what everyone does to the innocent white kid when you find out they might have a racist relative—take it out on them. Because all white kids should be ashamed and take responsibility for what other people do. She automatically starts accusing the boy she supposedly likes, Shadd, and her own friend, Rita, of being racist too when neither of them ever said anything remotely racist to this bitch. Get fucked, Chloe.

She’s also just a disgustingly rude shit to Phoebe, to Brynn, to Levesque, to Phil, to just about everyone. And her and her group of THUG friends (that’s what they are) attacked an innocent man in his shop and we’re supposed to feel sorry for them. This wasn’t even a mystery, because we knew what happened. It’s a good thing this book was short and easy to read, because the whole story was basically just, “Once upon a time, a spoiled bitch named Chloe existed. She was a hypocritical racist who criticized both white people and Asian people, and one day, her group of mates decided to randomly attack a man in his shop. Then she goes and plays victim, and cries some more when she then gets found out, and her soft-ass punishment is that she has to work in his shop. Boo hoo hoo.” Fuck off.

I have the second book, “Over the Edge”, which I’d actually had ever since I was a little kid, because it’s an old book my sister had lying on her bookshelves. I always thought it looked interesting, but now I’m not so sure, because it’ll have that brat as the main character. I’ll read it sometime I suppose, but not right away.

[MK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty unlikeable characters. Basically the Canadian Beverly Hills, 90210.

[Jasmine Hawamdeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was the first step for me to expand myself as a reader. I picked this book up because, well I asked my English Teacher "What should I read outside of Teen Fiction, that you would recommend to me?" and he gave me "The Third Degree" a mystery novel. Even though it was outside the genre I am used to, I still enjoyed this book.
It all starts when you get introduced to three half-sisters (Chloe, Brynn and Phoebe). At the beginning of the book I was a bit confused because I didn't realize that each chapter was a different characters voice. But that part of the book was quit interesting because I got a glimpse of the outside and inside view for everyone. Then after I understood that I starting really getting into the story, Chloe was the eldest she was the outgoing, confident, popular and didn't care what others thought of her. Brynn was the focused, smart one, who always put studies before anything else. In my opinion she was a stick in the mud, a responsible stick in the mud. Phoebe was the 13 year old who is very self-conscious and takes it to far. But all the mystery really comes in when their mother starts dating who could be husband number 4, he is Louis Levesque the homocide detective. That could only be an issue if you were involved in a crime, so of coarse one of the sisters are in trouble.
I finished this book because well it was plain good, it had some suspenseful to it and I really wanted to know if Chloe did the right thing.
I would recommend this book to anyone who like me wants to go outside a genre (and your genre happens to be teen fiction) this is perfect.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is not as good as Norah McClintock's other set of mysteries, Robyn Hunter. It's still a good series though.