FINDING DADDY

There is only one thing missing from 15-year-old Mira Kent’s almost perfect life: her Daddy. She knows very little about him except that he had red hair. While searching for his name, Mira discovers her mother changed their last name from Chadwick to Kent. Why? After finding his name, Mira contacts her Daddy and is pleased by his quick and loving response, though Dylan, her boyfriend, warns her to be careful. (“He’s a total stranger!”) Her excitement at meeting her Daddy is delicately balanced with Mira’s day-to-day life with her friend Sarah and her blossoming romance with Dylan. Then Mira’s safe world begins to unravel when terrible things start happening: Her dog is sadistically killed, and a masked man is stalking their home. As the story reaches its climax, readers will already guess Daddy is the one responsible for Mira’s grandmother’s death and a brutal attack on her mother. Plummer’s strengths lie in her ability to create believable characters that are funny and human. Her timing is perfect in this fast-paced, heart-pounding suspense story. (Fiction. 12-14)