Seconds Away. Finished audio 4-28-13, rating 4/5, YA thriller, pub. 2012

Unabridged audio. 7 hours 46 minutes. Read by Nick Podehl who did a fantastic job as Mickey.

Book 2 of the Mickey Bolitar series (Book 1)

Mickey Bolitar is a smart kid with a smart mouth (just like his uncle Myron) and this book picks up just a week after the first one.  Mickey is a kid who knows how to find trouble, or maybe trouble finds him, either way, his story is a thrill ride that few high school sophomores are able to experience.  His dad is still dead (probably), his mom is still a junkie in rehab, and his uncle is still his caretaker, other than that life moves on.  He gets caught in a fire at Bat Lady’s house, find out who the bald man in the sunglasses is, tries to figure out who shot his crush and killed her mom, finds out the truth about Ema’s parents, and tries out for the basketball team.  I had forgotten how much trouble teenagers could find in a day!

I liked this one a lot, maybe even a little better than the first.  I had to suspend disbelief from the beginning, but once I did that I just hung on for the ride. Many of these storylines (Bat Lady, the Butcher, his dad’s death) are continuations from the first book, but there are so many new threads to the story that it felt new.  Some things got wrapped up, some things didn’t and I am looking forward to spending more time with Mickey in the next book.

I wish Coben would write more Myron books so I liked seeing him show up in this one.  If you like the Myron series and you are willing to read about teens then this series is lots of fun.

I checked the audio out of the library.