DETECTIVE JERMAIN

After losing her father at a very young age, Jermain decided that she wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a detective. Now in her last year of high school, Jermain’s ambitions are a constant source of worry for her mother. She doesn’t have the time to have a heart-to-heart with Mom, though; she’s too busy trying to connect a car accident that killed a classmate and a teacher to a series of strange behaviors her counselor and fellow students are exhibiting. With the help of her best friends Andy and Travis, both of whom have long-standing, deep-seated crushes on her, Jermain discovers the culprit behind the zombielike behavior of their teachers and classmates. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids…. The style of this graphic work, with characters who look like they could be from any popular Japanese manga series, will appeal to readers who might be familiar with the format and enjoy mysteries. If the plots are thin and somewhat over the top, they still move along nicely. (Graphic fiction. 12 & up)