Todd is an aspiring writer and the events that he is part of during 1972 certainly lend themselves to his stories. During an incident that haunts Todd when a stray dog he had tried to protect gets struck by a truck, his path crosses with a slightly older boy named Rat. To say Rat has had a difficult life would be an understatement. He has abusive, often absent parents and a mom who arranged for him to serve in Vietnam when he was just 14! Todd is interested in Rat and wants to really understand this mysterious kid who seems to somehow be linked with a dead body found in the river.
This book, with its short chapters and layered storytelling, was a quick read that was as much an exploration of character and story telling as it was a mystery. ( )

Todd likes to write stories, especially ones involving people he knows. When a dead body is discovered in the river, he never imagines it would end up being linked to his new summer job helping out at the drive-in, or that his new friend Rat, who served in Vietnam, would have anything to do with it. Real life suddenly turns out to be more interesting than any story he's written. ( )

Arnold, having penned his first novel for the young adult reader, hits his stride keeping in step with the classic amateur detective mystery, starting with the male amateur detective, Todd. The dead body is mentioned early in the story, along with the introduction of budding writer Todd and his sidekick Lee. The suspects all come into focus in Todd’s young mind. The guilty and the innocent are revealed to Todd via clues in and around the river, and the wrath of mother-nature consumes the town, determined to mete out its own justice, engulfing everything in its path as the river overflows its banks. ( )

to say that i read this is sorta a lie; i only made it though the first 60 or so pages before putting it down. Normally I would never do that, but it's the holidays and I just can't do it. The writing is similar to other books I've read recently, but I cannot get into the story. It's solid just not engaging enough at the moment. If I wasn't reading it for a mock printz, I most likely wouldn't have picked this up.
For the benefit of the doubt, I might pick it up again during the spring when I don't have three other books left to read before the end of the year. ( )

The dead body that washed up from the river had no effect on Todd. He goes to school, helps out at his parents' motel, and now he has a new job at the drive-in theater. At the theater, he works with a guy not much older than himself - and the murder seems to have something to do with him. ( )