DESERT CROSSING
by Elise Broach
Three teens move from innocence to experience when their spring break takes an unexpected detour crossing the New Mexico desert. Fifteen-year-old Lucy is fed up with her older brother Jamie and his best friend Kit because they ignore her and flirt with every waitress between Kansas City and Phoenix. But everything changes when their car hits something on the highway during a nighttime cloudburst. Instead of finding an injured coyote, they are stunned to discover the body of a dead girl lying beside the highway. Forced to stay in the area while police investigate the unidentified girl’s death, Jamie becomes involved with an older local woman and a bewildered Lucy finds herself gravitating toward the irritating Kit. Obsessed with uncovering the identity of the mysterious dead girl, Lucy winds up on the trail of a strange man in a blue truck. Eventually, Lucy, Jamie and Kit resume their trip, having traveled much further than they ever imagined. Satisfying suspense and self-discovery in the desert. (Fiction. 12-18)