Friday, May 21, 2010

BULLET POINT by Peter Abrahams



Life for Wyatt and his friend Dub revolves around baseball.  Well, it used to anyway.  When the coach announces that baseball is being cut from the extracurricular schedule due to lack of funding, both boys are furious.  Just when they are about to earn their spots in the varsity lineup, the program is yanked.

When Wyatt finds out there might be a way to play ball somewhere else, he jumps at the chance.  Dub is going to live with his aunt in another more financially sound school district, and Wyatt is welcome to come along.  Not only will he get a chance to play baseball, but he'll also be getting out of the house and away from his unpleasant step-dad Rusty.  Although he'll miss his mother and his little step-sister, he's all in favor of the move.

Just when it looks like his luck has changed, Wyatt learns that his new school only allows one transfer student on each athletic team per year.  Dub's transfer was arranged first so he gets the spot.  Wyatt's friend urges him to make the move anyway so he might have a chance to play next year.

The new school isn't bad and an added bonus is meeting a slightly older, quite attractive girl named Greer.  She and Wyatt hit it off right away.  It doesn't take long for Wyatt to discover an amazing coincidence.  Greer's father is an inmate at the state correctional facility in the area, and he knows Wyatt's biological father who is an inmate in the same prison.  All Wyatt's ever been told is that just before he was born, his father and several acquaintances got the bright idea to rob a couple of drug dealers.  There was gunfire exchanged when they broke in the house killing a young woman and critically injuring her baby girl.  Now Wyatt is faced with a chance to meet the man he has only known by name and reputation.

The story quickly becomes an investigation in which Wyatt struggles to learn more about the man he has spent most of his life trying to forget.  As his contact with his father increases so does his desire to find out the whole story and maybe even find out if he is really an innocent man.

Author Peter Abrahams talent as a writer of mystery and suspense makes BULLET POINT a sure winner.  Readers will be intrigued by the plot's twists and turns right up until the very end.  Wyatt's character is likable and inspiring as he experiences separation from his mother and step-sister, frustration with his step-father, his first love, and the need to know his biological father's true story.

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