THE ROAD OF THE DEAD

“When the Dead Man got Rachel I was sitting in the back of a wrecked Mercedes wondering if the rain was going to stop.” So it is that 14-year-old Ruben, who can read minds, vicariously witnesses his sister’s murder. He and his older brother Cole travel to a desolate village in search of the killer, so that the coroner will release the body for burial. What follows is suspenseful and ultimately violent—though filtered through Ruben’s nonviolent perspective. The brothers’ relationship develops through the action, in Brooks’s signature poetic prose and humorous banter: “I need to know what you’re thinking sometimes.” “You know what I’m thinking.” “I need to hear it.” . . . “You want to know what I’m thinking?” . . . “Yeah.” . . . “I need to go to the bathroom . . . that’s what I’m thinking.” “I knew that,” I told him. “I thought you might.” “I knew that too.” Fans of Brooks’s Martyn Pig, Kissing the Rain, Candy and Lucas, won’t be disappointed by this thrilling, gritty story and it’s memorable, heart-breaking characters. (Fiction. YA)