Mad Mouse

First Line: August 30th is National Toasted Marshmallow Day, so, naturally, we're celebrating.

It's almost Labor Day in Sea Haven, New Jersey, and Danny Boyle is really hoping the new police chief is going to name him the new full-time officer. In the meantime, he's going to spend the evening celebrating National Toasted Marshmallow Day with his friends. Unfortunately the night is spoiled when Danny and his group are targeted by paint ball ninjas.

For a short while, everyone thinks it's "just kids" getting drunk, getting high, and blowing off steam at the end of summer. But there's another attack that includes bullets as well as paint, and one of Danny's friends is rushed to the hospital, fighting for her life. Ceepak doesn't have to show more convince Danny that someone is looking for revenge on him and his friends-- but Danny's got to figure out why. The big Labor Day celebration in Sea Haven is about to start. Danny and his friends won't be the only ones in the line of fire.

This book has a lot to say about being young, about being thoughtless, about how actions have consequences, about doing what's right... but a lot of that may become obscured by the relentless pace of the plot. "Mad mouse" is a term for a small roller coaster whose sharp turns make the riders feel as though they're being pitched out into space-- and to their deaths. "Mad mouse" could also be an excellent term for the plot of Grabenstein's book. Once this roller coaster has started, there's no stopping it.

it was good to see that John Ceepak is less tightly wound than in the first book in the series, and young Danny Boyle is the perfect narrator-- a rather gawky Every Guy who's smarter than he thinks and is extremely impressionable. His lucky day was when he teamed up with John Ceepak, a man with a strong moral code that he will not break ("I will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do"). It's almost impossible not to like Danny when he notices things like this:

" Her eyes tell me she's probably somebody's mom because they look tired, maybe even sad. I figure her kid is a teenager. I remember my mom's eyes when my brother and I were teenagers-- she looked like we never let her sleep. I also figure Rita is a single mom. Maybe it's the way she looks when Ceepak is polite, like maybe her first guy wasn't so nice."

If you put your mind to it, the bad guy isn't all that difficult to figure out, but I didn't care. Besides, Grabenstein throws a curve or two in with the bad guy's identity so you feel as though you're heading for another one of those mad mouse turns.

I know I mentioned reading the first book in the series, but it's not necessary to read it (Tilt-a-Whirl) before reading Mad Mouse. Just enough detail is given to keep things moving without making anyone confused.

When I finished the last page, I had that best of all reader reactions: a stunned (and whispered) WOW. And those last five sentences? They choked me up and put tears in my eyes. It's a good thing I didn't have the rest of the books in this series sitting on a shelf. I would've grabbed them all, put a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door, and holed up until I'd read every single one.

Wow.... show less

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: It's almost Labor Day, and the end of summer could mean the end of someone's life in this exciting sequel to Chris Grabenstein's Tilt-a-Whirl. Young Danny Boyle, the part-time summer cop "down the shore" in Sea Haven, New Jersey, gets taken on a wild ride when he and his longtime beach buddies become the unwitting targets of a mad-man's twisted scheme for revenge. Fortunately, John Ceepak, the cop with a soldier's unshakeable code of honor, stays at Danny's side to help him negotiate the quick twists and turns that threaten to destroy his life, his friends, and everything about the world he loves. Whipping from the boardwalk to the beach and back again, Mad Mouse keeps zigging and zagging at a show more breakneck pace, all the way to the surprising finish.

My Review: Second verse, same as the first/Coulda got better....

I enjoyed the time off from the troubling events I'm seeing develop at Goodreads. I hid myself in this enjoyable, light-weight read...

...and *whammo* got the boom lowered on me. Every one of us has done things that, had we known what we were doing at the time, would never have been put into action. Fortunately for most of us, the people we've hurt or mistreated don't come after us with sniper weapons in hand and murder at heart. Danny Boyle, the cool kid from school who never left the town he grew up in, has some of those and here they come with guns and murder all at the ready.

Grabenstein's writing is smooth, very easy on the eyes and ears, and carefully crafted. He chooses the scenes of his story with a very practiced and able eye. He offers an interesting angle of view. But the impact of the story is never in doubt, since his main character is the one in the sniper's crosshairs. Readers of Tilt-A-Whirl are already invested in Danny, and those who start here are probably not that far behind.

In the end, though, after going on the ride with Danny, it's the perp that leaves one almost breathless in horror, pity, fear, loathing. It's all so, so pointless. Except to the unhappy victim. And I don't, this time, mean Danny or his friends.

Very affecting.

What worked less well for me was the grafted-on feeling that the romance, which apparently blew up overnight, left me with; the Ceepak presence was deployed in an oddly spotty manner, feeling not exactly perfunctory but less personal than in the first book; and the new character Buzz was, well, here I can say it, perfunctory. Quick strokes, convenient presence, but not integral or maybe integrated, into the action.

A series I will pursue, no doubt, and with pleasure. Just a few clouds in the sunshiney sky. Nothing to suggest even a rain shower, still less a storm. I like finding myself in Sea Haven, and that says a lot.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

This is one of those books that I think the reader makes. I'm not sure if I would be as enthusiastic if reading the book. Jeff Woodman just captures the wacky humor of the naive Boyle and Ceepak, the almost too-good-to-be-true cop and mentor. The titles of all the books are named after rides at the mythical Sea Haven amusement park.

In this one, someone is targeting Danny and his friends, first with paint balls, then bullets. The mystery is OK, the story fine, but what really makes this series (and I intend to read /listen to all of them is the very clever and often witty dialogue between the characters. Just a lot of fun.

Not for those who like quiche with their Proust, just us regular folks who enjoy love a good cheeseburger dripping in show more grease followed by a fudge sundae. I recommend getting the audio. show less

It’s nearly the end of summer in Sea Haven, New Jersey, but one last beach party is planned before the tourists leave for the winter. The party is threatened however when someone starts shooting the good people of Sea Haven, first with paint ball guns but then with real bullets. It appears that the targets of the sniper might be part-time, rookie policeman Danny Boyle and his friends so Danny’s partner John Ceepak has even more than the usual imperative to quickly find the culprit.

I read and reviewed Tilt-A-Whirl, the first book in this series, in October and it’s rare for me to read series books in such quick succession. However, I needed a book with broad appeal for a long car trip with a couple of friends and, frankly, I did show more wonder if my enjoyment of the first one was a bit of an aberration (it being such a ‘feel-good’ book and me being such a bitter old cynic). Happily I loved Mad Mouse just as much as the first book (as did my two friends, neither of whom read much crime fiction).

Whereas other ‘feel-good’ books drive me to drink and/or mutter under my breath I am quite entranced by this series. I think in part it’s the sense of humour displayed by the narrator, Danny Boyle, which nicely offsets the perfectness of John Ceepak. It’s also partly due to the fact that even though the books are somewhat light they do tackle some tough subjects. Mad Mouse, with its double-meaning title, explores the impact that people’s actions have on those around them, even relatively minor actions that are quickly forgotten by all but one person, and also takes a look at the damage parental expectations can have on their children. The three of us who were listening together talked for quite some time about these issues after we’d finished listening to the book.

The series also has a nicely developing partnership between Danny Boyle and John Ceepak and in Mad Mouse we learn a little more about their personalities . In the weeks since the events of Tilt-A-Whirl Danny has matured a little and is now certain he wants to be a full-time police officer. Ceepak hasn’t changed too much although he does start to poke a little gentle fun at himself and is also sweetly tongue-tied when the teenage son of a woman he’s met tries to convince him to ask his mother out on a date. There’s a nice mentoring role between Ceepak and Danny and I am already wondering what will happen to these two in the next book.

I’m quite chuffed to discover that my enjoyment of the first book in this series was no aberration as there are several more for me still to read. The story was engaging, the characters delightful and the narration superb. show less

MAD MOUSE is the second John Ceepak mystery. John and Danny Boyle are back and it's the end of the summer, so their TILT-A-WHIRL escapades are only a couple months behind them at this point. The Sea Haven Police Department is going to hire one summer cop for a full-time position, and Danny has submitted his application for the position.

A big end-of-summer, Labor Day celebration is being planned on the beach to try to renew everyone's faith in the Sea Haven vacation spot.

Danny and his circle of friends head out to the beach one night before Labor Day to celebrate National Toasted Marshmallow Day. Their celebration is cut short when they are all assaulted by an unknown shooter with a paintball gun. No one is seriously injured, but the show more shooter is in the wind and has left a calling card, a Phantom trading card.

The chief instructs Ceepak and Danny to investigate this incident very quietly. They don't want anyone riling folks up and scaring them away from the big Labor Day party. But the investigation doesn't remain quiet for long.

Chris Grabenstein has created a couple of absolutely wonderful characters. And while I rated TILT-A-WHILR a five-star book, and still stick to that rating, I think MAD MOUSE topped it, but I have no where to go from five-stars. This is a five-star PLUS book.

Danny begins to take on more dimension in this book. He experienced quite an ordeal in TILT-A-WHIRL, and the results are apparent in MAD MOUSE. He's determined to become a full-time police officer and strive to be the kind of officer that Ceepak is. Grabenstein also shows Danny morphing through the use of Danny's relationships with his friends.

Ceepak has been an extremely rich character from the get-go. In MAD MOUSE we see more of who this man is. And I love him even more than I did in TILT-A-WHIRL. Grabenstein sneaks in a little environmental message with Ceepak in this novel when he and Danny are checking out a garbage can on the beach for clues. Danny tells Ceepak that he thinks the maintenance people empty the cans every day, and Ceepak's response is, "They should. They should also recycle these plastic bottles." A man after my own heart! Looking out for the environment. We also see an attraction between Ceepak and a woman in this novel, so we're permitted a little more of a view into the person, not just the cop. AND, we even see a possible slip in The Code during this novel.

As in TILT-A-WHIRL, Grabenstein has chosen a plot with a very serious tone. His humor helps to lighten the tone but not demean it at all. He walks a thin line and manages to maintain the seriousness of the plot with humor to make it fun. I admire that ability. So often these days humor takes the form of an insult to the reader or viewer's intelligence. But this is not the case with Grabenstein. After both books I found myself saying, "Wow! That was a heavy theme. But it sure was a lot of fun to read."

The action is wonderful, too. I had to note in my book during a car chase because I felt my heart rate increase as I was reading about them zooming around. I could envision it as a movie director's dream. And then there was a sudden halt to the chase. You feel all that momentum as you're reading through the scene. It's wonderful.

MAD MOUSE is written so that you don't need to read TILT-A-WHIRL first, but I would recommend reading it first if you're able to. I think that MAD MOUSE will mean more if you've already read TILT-A-WHIRL. It did for me anyway. Again, I can't recommend this book highly enough. show less

Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein is the second book in his crime series that features Danny Boyle and John Ceepak. Danny is the narrator, young and likeable, the story unfolds through his eyes. As a part-time summer cop, he works with Detective John Ceepak and together they keep both the beach and the boardwalk at Sea Haven, a New Jersey beach town, safe for the tourists and locals alike. Danny has grown up in Sea Haven, his friends are there and he appears to be in transition from party boy to responsible adult. He couldn’t have a better role model than John Ceepak. Unfortunately it appears that Danny has left at least one enemy in his wake.

Whether it’s rescuing a wheelchair bound kid from bullies or solving a serious crime, John show more Ceepak always goes by his code of honor. As a previous solider he is loyal to a fault, always there to help Danny, back him up in tricky situations and impart some life lessons along the way. John Ceepak reminds me of the cartoon character of Dudley Do-Right, but the witty, perceptive way in which he is presented raises this book above cartoon level.

Mad Mouse is very much like the carnival ride it is named after. A wild ride with both a quick pace to the plot and the dialogue. Sheer entertainment with lots of twists and turns, this book was a fun read. However there is more to this book than laughs, it has a dark side with violence and murder as well. A different and well presented series and it’s obvious the author enjoys his time spent in Sea Haven as much as his readers do. show less

Danny's on the upswing in Grabenstein's second Ceepak novel (after Tilt-a-Whirl) due to the fact that he just helped solved Sea Haven's biggest case, he looks good for a full time position with Sea Haven's finest, and is looking to be "friends" with gal pal Katie. Danny and his friends have an annual cookout on the beach and all is going well until the group is splattered with paintballs. The matter is deemed serious, but not urgent, until the paintballer strikes again, this time mixing in real bullets. And when Danny's girl gets hit, they realize it isn't only urgent, it's personal. Plus, they're working on a deadline. The mayor and the chief want this solved fast because of the big Labor Day BBQ party planned. Hey, it isn't every day show more MTV comes to Sea Haven.

Grabenstein does a fantastic job of mixing murder, mayhem, and humor. Danny's voice is solid and funny. The appeal of Ceepak is that he remains, well...Ceepak. The Man With A Code sticks by his code no matter what, even if that means writing his partner a ticket! While you might roll your eyes at some of the things Ceepak doesn't let slide, it's nice to think there might be a person out there whose word is bond. And Ceepak might think it's nice there might be a woman out there who agrees with him...and there just might be in a nice little subplot.

Check out Mad Mouse! show less