When Sam's mother disappears without a trace, a casserole left in the oven tips him off that she didn't run off of her own accord. Then his father arrives suddenly, uncharacteristically asking Sam to move in with him and his new wife. The explanation he offers Sam for his mother's abrupt disappearance doesn't seem credible; Sam and his best friend Mo decide to solve the mystery themselves. Together they face gruesome thugs, escape treacherous circumstances, and unearth a greedy developer's plans to hide the existence of potential nuclear disaster from the public. Silly and banal, this lags after its suspenseful first pages. Even the B-movie bad guys don't add oomph.