The Road to Lisdoonvarna

By Charles de Lint

Place: Publisher & Year: Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2001

Genre: Mystery, hard boiled crime fiction

ISBN: 9781892284914

Audience: Adult

Number of pages: 190

Setting: Ottawa, Canada

Time period: mid 1980s

Plot summary: Private investigator, Jake Swann, has a big heart, especially when it comes to his friends.  When Jake discovers that one of his friends has been terrorized by a gang of thugs, he vows to get revenge.  It doesn’t matter that the thugs happen to be police officers.

Nickel Plated

By Aric Davis

Place: Publisher & Year: Las Vegas, NV: AmazonEncore, c2010

Genre: Mystery, hard boiled crime fiction, suspense

ISBN: 9781935597322

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 197

Setting: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: Nickel is a twelve year old child abuse survivor and foster child escapee.  At the age of ten, he ran away from his foster home and has been living outside the system since then.  He makes his money in a variety of ways, including growing marijuana and blackmailing pedophiles he finds online.  While he worries about his income, he also works for free for kids.  When a beautiful high school student, Arrow, comes to Nickel for help finding her younger sister, Shelby, Nickel can’t say no.  Hopefully, he’ll be able to find Shelby soon.  The longer it takes, the less chance she has of being found alive.