28. Blacklands by Belinda Bauer

Unhappiness is all 12-year-old Steven Lamb knows.  He lives with his mother, grandmother, and younger brother in Somerset, England, in a house with tremendous grief.  His family has never gotten over the fact that Steven’s uncle was abducted and probably killed by a notorious child killer, Arnold Avery, who now is in jail and won’t admit to taking the boy years ago.  In order to make his grandmother happy, Steven spends all of his free time out on the moors, or the blacklands, digging, trying to find his uncle’s body so that the family can finally have closure.  When he gets frustrated by his lack of progress, he decides to tempt fate and write to Arnold Avery in jail, which changes everything in Steven Lamb’s life.

This is the type of psychological mystery that slowly sneaks up on a reader and takes their breath away.  Bauer creates a riveting and realistic story that slowly builds in a very believable tension until the horrifying end.  The cat and mouse manipulation between the older, and sinister Avery, and the young and naïve Lamb adds to the growing, sickening tension that readers know is coming.  While the end might be a little over the top, readers can’t help but cheer for Steven Lamb.  With a strong debut, Bauer is definitely a writer to watch.