Canary -- Duane Swierczynski

Sarie Holland is an abstemious college honors student.  Her dad is a drug counselor, and she has a nosy kid brother.  She's just an ordinary kid, though smarter than most, and not smart enough to avoid one big mistake.  Leaving a party, she drives a cute boy, D., to "pick up a book."  What he's picking up isn't a book, and Sarie finds herself in the clutches of a cop named Wildey after D leaves drugs in her car and flees.  Wildey threatens Sarie with jail if she doesn't turn informant for him.  She thinks she can do one job and get free of him.  Little does she know.

Let's stop here.  If you didn't read this article, you should read it now.  When I talked to Duane not long ago, he said he hadn't read the article, but his book pretty much follows the pattern laid out in it.  And if you think it's implausible that teenager would be turned into an informant by the cops, then here's a recent article that will change your mind.  (Update on the recent article is here.)

Now back to our regularly scheduled review.  Complications ensue.  People die.  Sarie's nosy brother starts to wonder what's going on with his sister.   Some very bad people take an interest in Sarie and her activities.  And how do you keep up a college career and take exams when you're being a CI for some cop?  That's not all that's going on in Canary, but if you've read any of Swierczynski's previous books, you know that he can juggle a lot of plots without dropping one. 

Part of the book is told by Sarie in the form of journal entries addressed to her dead mother.  Part is in third person.  The parts work together and are perfectly integrated into a smooth whole.  There's some of Swierczynski's wild humor and wild action, and it's all good.

The book would seem to be set up for a sequel, but at the moment there isn't one planned.  I'm hoping to see one eventually, though because Sarie's a great character and the book is great fun.  Check it out.