First published 2006
Kurt Carmody sits in a police station chair while coast guard boats search the black water for his younger sister Casey. Hours earlier, at a party on an abandoned pier, a small gun made its way through the crowd. Someone pulled the trigger. Casey fell into the water below. Now Kurt waits as detectives question his friends one by one. Each witness tells a different story about what happened on the pier. Was someone angry enough to shoot Casey on purpose? Did the gun fire by accident? Or is this another one of Casey's elaborate pranks? As the night drags on, Kurt learns things about his friends he never wanted to know. Old grudges surface. Lies unravel. The truth about that moment on the pier becomes more complicated with each testimony. Kurt must face the possibility that Casey might not come home, and that someone he trusts might be responsible.
Genres: mystery, contemporary, thriller, young-adult
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Police Station, Abandoned Pier
Period: Night
224 pages · Hardcover · Harcourt Childrens Books
Content warnings: death, violence