Coffee2words

Neighbourhood Watch is a lot of things, but first and foremost, it's a paradox.

When mixing an 11 year old boy protagonist with the subject matter of a sexual deviant kidnapping, defiling and then murdering, it would seem almost absurd to show this from a young boys perspective.

I too, would have scoffed if you had tried to sell me on this idea, however, having now read this book, I can say it is possible.

Even more Amazingly, Joseph has managed to not only pull this off, but to top off the paradoxical ideas, he's made a fairly solid mystery to draw you into the story.

Before long, I was skulking around the darkened streets with Jake, Evan and Colin. I was also turning their new-found information over in my brain as they schemed and plotted their way into mischief.

It was quite amusing to work through the ideas as an 11 year old would, somewhat refreshing from the craggy, worn down, washed out old coppers that frequent mystery and crime stories.

However, you should not pick this book up, if a hard crime story is what you're after. You will not find it. Nor should you peek inside if you have a penchant for adult fiction. 

If you like young protagonists, a feel of youthful imagination and you can overlook the simplified reasoning of an 11 year old when it comes to crime fighting, then this story is for you.

While not overly gruesome, the content could be disturbing to young readers. There's no way I would classify this as horror, it is more of a light thriller mystery.

A few things I noticed:

29% - There'd (There was) only one direction...

41% - his light(')s on

46% - ...pierced (the) cap's thin walls.

47% - I'd hadn't (I hadn't) so much...

50% - they thinks (think) it's one...

90% - It's Jake Amsel, yet it is mentioned that Mr Amsel isn't home when speaking about Evan Grosse's house.

**Note: I won an electronic copy of this book through Booklikes giveaways**