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Booklist Brooks, Kevin. The Road of the Dead. Mar. 2006. 352p. Scholastic/Chicken House, $16.99 (0-439-78623-1).Gr. 9-12. Fourteen-year-old Ruben Ford is sitting in his father's junkyard when he knows--knows--that his older sister, Rachel, has been raped and murdered. Perhaps it is his Gypsy blood that gives him second sight; Ruben can see and feel things others can't. He knows, for instance, that his ice-cold brother, Cole, is going to get into--and cause--trouble when he decides to go to desolate Dartmoor, where Rachel met her end. Brooks' great strength is his talent for intense description; he makes readers see, feel, and smell all that Ruben does--most of it coarse, disgusting, and ugly. The author uses an interesting technique to heighten that effect. Psychic Ruben can see things happening miles away, so Cole's battles with those responsible for Rachel's death are literally seen through Ruben's eyes. However, as in Kissing the Rain (2004), Brooks has trouble tying up loose ends. Thus, the question of how Cole comes upon a key piece of evidence is brushed away with Ruben's comment, Does it matter? Readers have sat through a lot of brutality (albeit strikingly written brutality) to get that information, so the answer is, well, yeah, it does. --Ilene Cooper Kirkus When the Dead Man got Rachel I was sitting in the back of a wrecked Mercedes wondering if the rain was going to stop. So it is that 14-year-old Ruben, who can read minds, vicariously witnesses his sister's murder. He and his older brother Cole travel to a desolate village in search of the killer, so that the coroner will release the body for burial. What follows is suspenseful and ultimately violent--though filtered through Ruben's nonviolent perspective. The brothers' relationship develops through the action, in Brooks's signature poetic prose and humorous banter: I need to know what you're thinking sometimes. You know what I'm thinking. I need to hear it. . . . You want to kno

Booklist Brooks, Kevin. The Road of the Dead. Mar. 2006. 352p. Scholastic/Chicken House, $16.99 (0-439-78623-1).<br>Gr. 9-12. Fourteen-year-old Ruben Ford is sitting in his father's junkyard when he knows--knows--that his older sister, Rachel, has been raped and murdered. Perhaps it is his Gypsy blood that gives him second sight; Ruben can see and feel things others can't. He knows, for instance, that his ice-cold brother, Cole, is going to get into--and cause--trouble when he decides to go to desolate Dartmoor, where Rachel met her end. Brooks' great strength is his talent for intense description; he makes readers see, feel, and smell all that Ruben does--most of it coarse, disgusting, and ugly. The author uses an interesting technique to heighten that effect. Psychic Ruben can see things happening miles away, so Cole's battles with those responsible for Rachel's death are literally seen through Ruben's eyes. However, as in Kissing the Rain (2004), Brooks has trouble tying up loose ends. Thus, the question of how Cole comes upon a key piece of evidence is brushed away with Ruben's comment, Does it matter? Readers have sat through a lot of brutality (albeit strikingly written brutality) to get that information, so the answer is, well, yeah, it does. --Ilene Cooper <br>Kirkus<br> When the Dead Man got Rachel I was sitting in the back of a wrecked Mercedes wondering if the rain was going to stop. So it is that 14-year-old Ruben, who can read minds, vicariously witnesses his sister's murder. He and his older brother Cole travel to a desolate village in search of the killer, so that the coroner will release the body for burial. What follows is suspenseful and ultimately violent--though filtered through Ruben's nonviolent perspective. The brothers' relationship develops through the action, in Brooks's signature poetic prose and humorous banter: I need to know what you're thinking sometimes. You know what I'm thinking. I need to hear it. . . . You want to kno

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Kevin Brooks is the groundbreaking author of the internationally acclaimed novels DAWN; BLACK RABBIT SUMMER; BEING; THE ROAD OF THE DEAD, a Mystery Writers of America Edgar nominee; CANDY; KISSING THE RAIN; LUCAS; and MARTYN PIG, which received England's Branford Boase Award for Best First Novel. Brooks lives in Yorkshire, England.

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