Teenreads.com -- INTO THE DARK by Peter Abrahams

Books by
Peter Abrahams

Echo Falls Mysteries

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

INTO THE DARK

INTO THE DARK
An Echo Falls Mystery
Peter Abrahams
Laura Geringer Books/HarperCollins
Mystery
ISBN: 9780060737085
304 pages

INTO THE DARK, the third installment in Peter Abrahams’s Echo Falls series, finds 13-year-old Ingrid Levin-Hill in the middle of a number of family crises. Her Grampy is having trouble keeping up with his farm, her mother and father don’t seem to be getting along, and she finds a body on Grampy’s property with her maybe-more-than-friend Joey Strade. As Ingrid solves the mystery, many family secrets come out in this fast-paced adventure.

Ingrid barely has time to piece together clues in between helping her family, starring as Gretel in the community theater production of Hansel and Gretel, going to school and keeping up with her friends. But when Grampy is arrested for murder, she has no choice but to find answers. Grampy will not discuss where he was at the time the crime occurred or what he was doing. There is a lot of that behavior going around, but Ingrid is determined to find out everything.

A visit to help Grampy with chores becomes frightening when Harris Thatcher from the Department of Conservation comes to talk to him about the “pond” Grampy had made with illegal explosives. Grampy sends the gentleman off with the threat of a .22 rifle and shouting. While she’s there, he also gets a “wrong number” from a Dr. Pillman and will not talk to her about the bruising on his arm.

The editor of the local paper is doing a story on the five surviving World War II men in the area, and Ingird is surprised to hear Grampy referred to as a hero. He refuses to discuss it, then abruptly changes his mind and agrees to become part of the piece. Soon after, while Ingrid is snowshoeing with Joey, they find a body on Grampy’s property. It’s Mr. Thatcher, and he was killed with a rifle! Chief Strade, Joey’s father, knows that Ingrid is lying about Grampy, but she will not tell anyone that she saw him threaten Thatcher with the same kind of weapon. So he forbids Joey from talking to her.

When Ingrid tries to get answers at home, she finds that her mother is distracted and her father is never around. Even her good friend Mia tells her she’s moving away. Ingrid realizes she must solve things on her own, or else Grampy will go to prison. She begins finding clues in everything from a New York parking receipt to stories of World War II to talking to Grampy’s neighbors. The Chief is watching her, and she lies to him again, which he seems to be aware of. She knows that some secrets are not hers to tell.

Life at home gets quite crazy and upsetting, and Ingrid finds a surprising bond with her older brother. He joins her in learning about Grampy’s heroic past and how it affects their situation today.

While readers may figure out the identity of the murderer along with Ingrid, the details of the characters and their secrets will keep them turning pages. Ingrid is a smart, realistic 13-year-old with a sense of humor. In INTO THE DARK, she really starts to grow up and find her own way through some very tough family situations. While this third Echo Falls book is a darker departure from the previous two titles, fans of the series will find a lot to like in this one.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

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