The Shadow of Seth

Author: Tom Llewellyn
Publisher: The Poisoned Pencil
Genre: Teen / Mystery
ISBN: 978-1-92934-518-2
Pages: 186
Price: $10.95

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Seth Anomundy lives in a small apartment in the back of a boxing gym, on the poor side of Tacoma, with his mother, a cleaning woman. And now she’s dead, apparently murdered. The cops don’t seem interested in finding out what happened to her, so Seth needs to take matters into his own hands.

On a delivery run for the clock repairman he occasionally works for, he meets one of the rich girls in school, who immediately takes an interest in him. As he speaks with his mother’s clients, he retraces her steps that fateful night, narrowing down the suspects. The cops have issued an arrest warrant for the woman he considers a second mother when she disappears after the murder, and Seth wants to clear her name. But he also needs to steer clear of King George, a teenage thug who suddenly wants him dead.

The Shadow of Seth is an interesting whodunit. Clues are carefully presented and the reader is able to follow along as Seth figures out what happened. But some of the characters’ actions don’t ring quite true, and Seth acts more like he’s researching the death of a stranger rather than his own mother. Fans of simple and straight-forward murder mysteries without too much emotional involvement will enjoy this novel.

Reviewer: Alice Berger