When graffiti artist Fun is threatened with expulsion from Winchester, the last option for “dirty laundry” white-collar teens kicked out of every other East Coast school, he strikes a deal with the headmaster and his TV-producer father: Serve as the personal assistant to undercover actress Carli, who’s conducting research for her new teen drama, and he will be allowed to graduate. Meanwhile, popular senior Darcy Novak has gone missing, and conscientious Carli resolves to find her, despite Fun’s skepticism. They are assisted by a ragtag assortment of boarding-school dropouts who hinder more than help, and they follow a series of dead-end clues that seem to exist solely for the hipster teens to have something to angst over. Ehrenhaft appears to be trying to strike a darkly comedic Heathers tone with his smug, ironic dialogue, but the attempt falls flat due to shallow characterizations, a convoluted plot and too many red herrings. Though the name Veronica Mars is invoked, neither Carli nor Fun is much of a sleuth, nor is this much of a mystery. (Mystery. 13 & up)
