Joey has been on Kate's case ever since their parents married, with Linda (Joey's sister) trying to make peace between them. Now, after a boating accident miles from camp, Linda lies semiconscious with a broken leg and other injuries; Joey and Kate are going to have to cooperate to get her to a doctor. Though peppered with cliffhangers, the tale of their rugged hike never develops much tension because Masterton keeps breaking the narrative flow with flashback entries from Kate's diary, describing both her reaction to her father's remarriage and Joey's relentless persecution as he takes out his grief over his own father's death on Kate. The climax is further vitiated by a pointless episode tacked on at the end. Joey's hostility does gradually abate, but not before he utters some unnatural-sounding dialogue (``No! None of us will get back! We'll die here on this stinking river...'') and pop psychology (``The shrink said because my dad is dead I have to be angry at somebody else''). A first novel that is overpredictable and needlessly complex, with too many stops for analysis and explanation. Step- siblings iron out their differences more convincingly in many other books—e.g., Hahn's lively The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster (p. 173). (Fiction. 11-14)*justify no* Read full book review >