Although I read a mystery this week, I also read a tween novel by Gordon Korman. It was recommended by two eleven year olds.

Jett Baranov is the spoiled son of a tech billionaire and Doctors Without Borders mother who is always traveling. His last display of acting out gets him sent to Oasis, a vegetarian, unplugged camp, along with his long suffering minder Matt.

Jeff is immediately determined to get kicked out, as he has several other camps. He breaks into the office and steals his phone back, using it to order a hovercraft and some other items. But he is not thrown out and his father refuses to intervene.

The discovery of a small lizard named Needles brings Jett into a small group who hide and feed the creature and bond with one another.

But something is not right at Oasis. Who lives in the mansion outside of town and what is he hiding?

Funny and with one plot twist after another. Highly recommended.

Now for a change of pace; Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie.

Syd Walker shakes the dust of Oklahoma off her feet as soon as she can, although she becomes an archeologist working for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). As a child, she was traumatized when two men broke into a trailer and threatened Syd, her sister and best friend Luna. Syd shoots one of the men dead. The other, Luna and her parents are thought to have burned up in the trailer. Syd experiences recurring bad dreams and her sister, although rescued, gets into drugs.

But now Syd has been drawn back to search for her sister who has gone missing. A skull with Syd’s badge has been placed in a tree. Although not Emma Lou, it is the skull of a missing girl.

Unputdownable. Highly recommended.