JUNE 2011 - AudioFile
Blink and Caution, both separately on the run, get caught up in a kidnapping by dint of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This gripping crime story is told in alternating points of view—second person for Blink and third person for Caution—a technique that is especially effective in the audio format. Running through Blink's mind is the abusive voice of his stepdaddy, telling him "how it's going to be." MacLeod Andrews shifts tone only slightly from sneering to serious to relate Caution's side of the scheme. Two voices, both narrated by Andrews, create a story so fraught with woe, guilt, terror, and tension that the listener can't help rooting for the teens to escape the situation they're in. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
Wynne-Jones (The Uninvited) delivers a dazzling crime novel that evokes the taut writing and tropes of hard-boiled fiction while interweaving social justice themes and a solid sense of realism. Blink has been living on the streets ever since running away from his abusive stepfather. While on a foray into a hotel to scavenge for leftover room service food, he witnesses an oil executive's faked kidnapping and ends up getting involved as he realizes the implications of the crime. Along the way, he meets Caution, on the run both from her abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend and her guilt over the accidental shooting death of her brother. The two teens are caught up in environmental and racial issues that are far beyond their ability to remedy, and Wynne-Jones—often using a surprisingly effective second-person voice—focuses on their attempts to escape immediate danger and repair their internal emotional damage. Blink and Caution's gradual need to trust each other to heal drives the story forward, and should provide ample thrills to lovers of crime novels and strong teen characters. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)
JUNE 2011 - AudioFile
Blink and Caution, both separately on the run, get caught up in a kidnapping by dint of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This gripping crime story is told in alternating points of view—second person for Blink and third person for Caution—a technique that is especially effective in the audio format. Running through Blink's mind is the abusive voice of his stepdaddy, telling him "how it's going to be." MacLeod Andrews shifts tone only slightly from sneering to serious to relate Caution's side of the scheme. Two voices, both narrated by Andrews, create a story so fraught with woe, guilt, terror, and tension that the listener can't help rooting for the teens to escape the situation they're in. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
Two teenagers hurt by life "with its never-ending snares and pitfalls and dire consequences" come together in this elegantly constructed noir mystery and love story. Blink is a scruffy street kid with "tea-colored eyes" trying to steal breakfast in a hotel when he witnesses what he believes is a fake kidnapping. Caution is a girl with "dove-colored eyes," who sees her relationship with badass drug dealer Merlin as penance for her past crimes. Separate narratives—with spot-on dialogue and an effective use of a second-person point of view—come together to unite the two characters in a breathtaking thriller as they search for the kidnapped businessman and maybe make a fair sum of money in the process. Blink and Caution are good people with tough lives, each in a kind of purgatory and each turning out to be just what the other needs. Together they make peace with their pasts and cobble together a future. Wynne-Jones' finest, most beautifully written novel yet, one more in a career full of distinguished works. (afterword)(Mystery. YA)
