BRINGING BACK KAY-KAY

Sibling love and rivalry are two sides of the same coin for a brother and sister growing up in Lamora, India.

Tween Lena Krishnan, aka El-Kay, is enjoying an idyllic vacation from school without her 15-year-old brother, Karthik, aka Kay-Kay, who’s gone away to summer camp in Goa. Her parents are finally being more attentive toward her, and she wishes he might stay away a bit longer. But everything changes when Kay-Kay doesn’t make it home after camp. Although he boarded the overnight express train with his classmates, he wasn’t there when it arrived in Lamora. The Krishnan family begins to unravel with his disappearance. Worse, the police are dismissive and seem to think her brother is a runaway. Lena decides to take matters into her own hands and look into his disappearance. Her investigation leads her to speak with Karthik’s friends and teachers and learn about his time at camp. In the process, Lena finds out more about her brother—and herself. Despite some slow moments, the book is well paced overall. Kay-Kay’s poems, which Lena discovers, are a tad banal, and the police response feels unconvincing, but Lena’s first-person narration, enhanced by pages from her notebook, is engaging, and Kothari’s writing is fun and assured.

A fast-paced mystery thoughtfully exploring family relationships.