Week 8: Acceleration

• Week:  8
• Book Title:  Acceleration by Graham McNamee
• Book Cover Image:

Copyright (2005) Random House Children's Books 

• Book Summary:  Duncan, after watching a tragic death, involves himself in the tracking of a would be serial killer.  While working in the subway lost and found room, Duncan comes across a leather diary written by a very disturbing sociopath.  Duncan discovers the crazy man is stalking women in the very subway where he works.  Duncan goes for redemption as he goes after the killer.
• APA Reference:  McNamee, G.  (2005).  Acceleration.  New York, NY:  Random House Children's Books.
• My Impressions:  This is a very good book written in a style that teenagers and adults would enjoy.  It is a modern day mystery minus the guts and gore that often go with the adult version of this genre.  Duncan is a intorspective and interesting character that captures the readers attention.  He has witnessed a tragic death that he thought he could prevent but didn't.  This has him in a funk until he discovers the diary and becomes involved in saving three young women's lives.  Involving his friends because the police won't help him is dangerous, but works.  There are a lot of gripping moments that I think kept me reading.  Teenagers will relate to the dilemmas Duncan finds himself facing.  I recommended this book in my Book Talk "Troubled Males in Popular Fiction" for 16 year old kids.  
• Professional Review:

Voice of Youth Advocates ( December 01, 2003; 9780385901444 )

McNamee, author of Hate You (Delacorte, 1999/VOYA April 1999), pulls no punches in this thriller that moves as fast as trains thundering above the Toronto Transit Commission's lost and found, where seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the journal of a psychopathic killer who is stalking female victims on the subway. At first Duncan just wants to get rid of it, even tries giving it to the police, but he decides that stopping this guy might redeem him from his guilt over not saving a drowning victim the summer before. Duncan and his physically handicapped friend, Vinny, research serial killers at the library. They certainly do not expect the killer, whom they call Roach, to show up looking for his journal, but he does. Duncan follows Roach home, and then calls his light-fingered friend, Wayne, to help him break into the killer's house while he is gone. When Roach finds Duncan in his basement, Duncan escapes only to be caught at the subway station and thrown onto the tracks. In a final attempt to save himself and the girls, Duncan rolls under the platform ledge and grabs Roach's leg, toppling him in front of the oncoming train. While in the hospital with multiple head wounds, Duncan fakes amnesia when police question him about the dead guy. Only Duncan and his buddies know that they stopped a serial killer and released Duncan from his nightmares. This novel will intrigue Silence of the Lamb fans, but McNamee offers much more. The dark symbolism surrounding the subway and the rich character development are as intoxicating as the adrenalin rush.-Ruth E. Cox.

Cox, R.  (2003, December 1)  Acceleration [Review of the book Acceleration by Graham McNamee]. Voice of Youth Advocates. Retrieved from Bowker booksinprint.com.

• Library Uses:  Acceleration could be used in a mystery unit as an exciting way to pull in teenagers to the genre.  I think it would be an interesting pull for journal writing.  Students could choose to be the serial killer or the detective and write from those points of view.  Posts from the "killer" could be read or posted and replied to from Duncan's point of view.