Acceleration

I just finished reading a young adult book called Acceleration by Graham McNamme. It was recommended to me by amazon.com, along with a ton of crap like war novels (because I bought some W.E.B. Griffith books for my dad) and some aeronautical engineering books (because I bought some for my brother last Christmas). Usually amazon recommends crap that I don't have any interest in simply because I've gotten an obscure DVD or book. They link the weirdest things together. But this book actually sounded like something I'd be interested in.

The story is about a Toronto teen named Duncan who failed to save a girl the previous summer when she was drowning. He was on the swim team and known for being a great swimmer, but after this incident, he can't get in the water anymore without having flashbacks to the incident.

He gets a job working at the lost and found for the transportation committee and discovers the journal of a potential serial killer. The journal writer has killed cats and started fires. Duncan talks to his friend Vinny about it, and together they begin to research serial killers. According to the FBI profilers, serial killers generally start with animals, move up to fires, then accelerate to killing humans.

Duncan is able to find the women that the killer, who he calls Roach, is stalking. There are three he describes in detail. He also has the times they ride the train. Duncan tracks down one of the women, follows her home, but he realizes he can't help her unless he finds Roach.

He tries the police, but they don't take him very seriously. So Duncan takes matters into his own hands. He gets a lucky break when the killer comes to collect his journal, which I found far-fetched. He follows the killer and then breaks in to his house.

Anyway, Duncan ends up saving the day by pushing the killer in front of a train. He becomes a hero which is what he was upset about from the beginning. One of the themes is that men are taught that they should be heroic. Duncan failed to be a hero and nothing works for him until he can actually make up for that.

I liked this book more than mostly all of the YA books I've read this summer. I thought the end was a bit contrived, but I think teens appreciate the main character "winning."