Theodore Boone: The Abduction

I think Theo Boone, Kid Lawyer (or as the covers of the paperbacks have it "Half the Man, Twice the Lawyer") is my Flavia de Luce. I didn't take as well to Flavia's personality as others have, but Grisham's 13-year-old legal fanatic is just my cup of tea. In this one, Theo's good friend April has disappeared in the middle of the night, and he was the last one to speak to her. He knows something about her troubled home life that could be important, but he promised April he wouldn't tell anyone...so how can he help find her without betraying her confidence? Lots of irresponsible adult behavior gives Theo a chance to do what the police are unable to manage...track down April's ne'er-do-well Dad and figure out what really happened to her.

This is the second book that John Grisham has written about Theodore Boone who is a 13 year old son of two lawyers. Theodore is a detective/lawyer himself who wants to be a judge because "In what other job can an entire room of people, regardless of their age, job or education, be required to stand in solemn respect as you enter the room? Theo could think of only three - queen of England, president of the United States, and judge." In this book, Theodore's friend April has disappeared and is presumed to have been kidnapped by her uncle who had been her pen pal and who had recently escaped from prison. The book is well written and exciting and I was laughing out loud at the scene with the parrot in Animal Court. I loved the book and show more thought it was fantastic! show less

Summary:

Theodore Boone: The Abduction is a book about Theodore Boone, a thirteen year old wannabe lawyer. The book starts off with Theodore finding out that his best friend April has gone missing. Theodore proceeds to do some detective work with his friend Chase to try to find where she is. They eventually find out that April is with her dad and his band. Theodore has his uncle, Ike, drive him to the next place April's dad will be playing. Theo and Ike find April and have to sneak her out of the place before her dad finds out. Ike then spends all night getting them back home to her mother. April's parents are brought to court and figure out what they need to do to change.

Opinions:

To start off, this book was remarkably disappointing. The show more first book of this series was a book about law, and even for someone who isn't a big fan of the subject, it was still an exiting and interesting book. The sequel on the other hand, is much more detective work and even then, it was just Theo and Chase looking a frat houses. The only decent court scene was a filler animal court case that tried way too hard to be funny. The only interesting character is uncle Ike, being a useful asset to Theo's squad and just being a likable uncle character in general. But of course, he only really does anything in the tail end of the book, and even then, all he does is just drive Theo to save April. The entire abduction was just anti-climactic, with the entire first half eluding to the abductor being April's absolute creep of a relative, with some great interrogation scenes coming out of him. Unfortunately, this, of course, was a red herring, with April's dad being the real abductor and no real harm being done. Am I saying April should have been hurt in any way by some creepy jailbird? Not exactly. I just think that the stakes were brought up way too high for the real culprit just to be April's deadbeat dad. I really hope that the rest of this series will be better, with the ending of this book eluding to the completion of the murder trial of the last book, but for now, Theodore Boone: The Abduction was a massive letdown. show less

Theodore Boone's friend April disappears, and Theo is on the case! Along the way, he also helps a classmate save their pet African Gray Parrot who's been creating some havoc of his own.

Mostly the case involves a lot of legwork and computer searching. Like most young adult novel "heroes", Theo tends to ignore his parents wishes/rules when it suits him. That's not necessarily a good thing to emulate.

Scroll down for the review in English.


Me gustó el primer libro, pero El Secuestro fue una gran decepción y no se lo recomendaría a nadie, ni siquiera a niños. Lo mejor que puede decir de él es que fue corto y rápido.

El comportamiento de Theo es… confuso. Se comporta a veces como un adulto, pero luego, en la página siguiente, se está comportando como un bebé que no ha conseguido lo que quería. ¡Se supone que tiene trece años, no cinco! El que algunas personas, incluso adultos, se comporten como niños a veces es aceptable, pero está falta de consistencia me pareció demasiado extrema y pasaba demasiado a menudo para ser creíble. Además, es demasiado arrogante para ser agradable. Creo que era mucho más agradable en el show more primer libro. Puede que sea porque sus casos eran mucho más claros en el primer libro, así que era más fácil estar de su parte. Hay una escena en este libro, en la que defiende a un loro que está causándole muchos problemas a una escuela de equitación, porque está asustando a los caballos. Me dio la impresión que el lector debe ponerse del lado de Theo, porque se trata toda la situación como si fuera un chiste en el que Theo gana, pero me molestó que nadie, ni siquiera los adultos en la sala, se diera cuenta de cómo de seria podría haber llegado a ser la situación. Una niña se rompió un brazo porque el loro asustó al caballo, pero podría haber acabado con lesiones más serias.

Toda la investigación policial es un desastre. No dice mucho de la policía de la ciudad el que un par de chicos de trece años encuentren a uno de los sospechosos más obvios, cuando la policía ni siquiera consideró que esa persona era lo suficientemente importante para investigarla. Me suele gustar esta clase de libros de investigaciones juveniles, pero éste fue demasiado absurdo.

No odié este libro y, dado que la biblioteca tiene la serie entera y que me gustó el primer libro, voy a darle una oportunidad al tercero, pero puede que no termine la serie si el tercer libro también me decepciona.

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I liked the first book, but The Abduction was a huge disappointment and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, not even kids. The best thing that I can say about it is that it was short and fast.

Theo's behaviour is... confusing. He behaves like an adult sometimes, but then, on the next page, he's behaving like a toddler who didn't get what he wanted. He’s supposed to be thirteen, not five! That some people, even adults, behave like children sometimes is fine, but I found this lack of consistency too extreme and it happened too often to be believable. Also, he's too arrogant to be likeable. I think he was much more likable in the first book. Maybe it's that his cases in the first book were much clearer, so it was easier to side with him. There's a scene in this book where he defends a parrot, who is causing a lot of trouble to a riding school because he's scaring the horses. I got the impression that the reader is supposed to side with Theo because the whole situation is treated like a joke where Theo wins, but it bothered me that nobody, not even the adults in the room, realised how serious the situation could have been. A young girl got a broken arm because the parrot scared a horse, but she could have ended up with very severe injuries.

The whole police investigation is a mess. It doesn't say much of the town's police if a couple of thirteen year olds can find one of the obvious suspects when the police didn't even consider that person important enough to be investigated. I usually like this kind of kid investigation books, but this one was just too absurd.

I didn't hate this book and, as the library has the whole series and I liked the first book, I am going to give the third one a chance, but I may not finish the series if the third book disappoints me as well. show less

I found the mystery slight (even for a juvenile), the characters uncaptivating, and the narrative pedestrian.
The protagonist did things I do not credit (having raised five boys and being active in scouting), and the mystery itself was unsatisfying.

Book 174 - John Grisham - Theodore Boone : Book 2 The Abduction

One of Grisham’s shortest novels as the teenage would-be lawyer Theodore Boone returns in Book 2 of 7 and this time it’s personal.

Theo’s best friend from school, April is missing…her family are crazy…her mum hadn’t come home for a few days…her dad is an addicted 40s rocker who is on the road a lot … and she is writing to a distant cousin who has been in prison who then escapes.

As Theo turns detective he has to battle the police, the law and even his parents in his determination to find his missing friend. Her cousin is captured and wants a deal for his freedom in exchange for telling them where she is.

Another brilliant novel from Grisham is his usual no show more nonsense sort of way…if I was still teaching I would have used this as a whole class project…setting up a crime scene and police headquarters in my classroom. As each layer is peeled back…Theo gets closer to the truth…and then a shocking discovery changes everything.

Another winner from Grisham’s ‘pen’…can’t wait to get back to Theo in Book 3 show less