On the first day of Brit's summer vacation, her parents leave for an Alaskan cruise. They entrust Brit's care to Nannie (or rather Nannie's care to Brit). Nannie has recently lost her driver's license and her car because Brit's mother feels Nannie has become senile. Nannie fights back by renting a large van and attempting to take her old college roomates to their 65th reunion. When Nannie discovers her inability to drive the large van, Brit must take over, only having her license for a short time.
A man walks through the deserted prairie of Oklahoma. He knows he is missing something, but he can't quite figure out what it is. Suddenly, in a moment of breakthrough, he realizes he has no memories left. Who is he? Why is he in the middle of nowhere? He finds a gas station and tries to call the one number that he remembers and gets an answering machine to "The Land of Debris and Home of Alfredo." Progressing through the most ludicrous of situations, the man finds himself in such places as New Mexico, Mexico City, Oregon, Las Vegas, Lousiana, and Kansas.
A story laced with the twists and turns of British humor, The Good, The Bat, and The Ugly is the latest book written by Paul Magrs. Jason's father was a famous puppeteer in his day, but now he is a washed up old grouch. When he implies Jason to take up the family business of puppets, everything goes mad. Soon everything is in a mess when his father is dragged off to jail, and Jason's older half-brother Barry gets involved. On top of that, Jason's father's old puppet is calling to him from the attic, and mysterious puppet murders start happening all over town.
A present-day Texas school district has a troublemaker on its hands. Fredrika Murchison- Kowalski, or Freddie for short, is a vegan and believes strongly in liberating animals, but she goes too far when she nearly burns down the school's football stadium trying to liberate the bull mascot. She is quickly shipped back to her native Chicago where she must live with her grandfather and her cousin, Hans-Peter. They live in a traditional Eastern European neighborhood with lots of sausage, pets, and fur.
Amidst the hottest summer on record in a futuristic Britain, a young woman dies seemingly naturally. Though her ordeal was long and painful, no traces of poison were found in her system. Soon after, another woman is stabbed with an unknown object that leaves absolutely no trace. And yet another woman dies in a sauna from an unknown poison. What do the victims have in common? Their name: Emily Wonder. Forensic investigator Luke Harding and his robotic sidekick, Malc, are assigned to the case.
In book two of the Traces series, we re-join Luke Harding, a forensic investigator, and his robotic sidekick in London. The city has fallen into disrepair, and roaming wild animals are reclaiming the city. Amid all this chaos, a war between brown and white people rages. A white boy named Owen is shot and is aided at a hospital. His doctor ends up shot soon after treating him. Is this a brown vs. white crime? Is she killed because she's a doctor? Is this one of the random crimes that plagues London so often?
