Disclaimer: I received and advance review copy from the publisher as part of a giveaway.

Shelby's mother's remarriage and life with her new stepdad and their son hasn't been easy. Shelby feels like she's asked to take on more than she should have to and that her presence is often taken for granted. After being told she can't go to a friend's party that has been planned for weeks because she needs to stay home and take care of her brother, Josh, Shelby is quite angry. After initially lashing out at her parents, she decides to take her brother for a walk and cool down. But what she doesn't expect is that her brother won't make it home--he is taken in the park while she is momentarily distracted. The circumstances surrounding Josh's disappearance are definitely suspicious. Shelby has a theory that Josh was kidnapped based on a suspicious vehicle she remembered seeing, but the police have their own theory--Shelby was fed up with babysitting and made her brother disappear. The stress of her brother's disappearance, the fact that she's been accused, and a sudden isolation from her friends almost proves too much for Shelby until she meets Matt, a young man who comes to her rescue and then offers to help her find her brother. But can Shelby trust Matt? Then again, can anyone really ever trust another person? And can Shelby track down who took her brother before anything bad happens to him?

Mystery. Suspense. And a few unexpected twists. That's what one can expect here. There are some intriguing family dynamics that didn't endear me to Shelby's mother in the slightest, but did make it easier to connect to and root for Shelby, so I guess that all works out in the end. I had figured out the answer before it was revealed, which sometimes bugs me when I'm reading a mystery, but I think case I thought it was okay. There was enough story after the reveal to make it not seem like I'd worked out the whole of the plot. Shelby's heroics at the end seem a bit farfetched, especially considering her clumsiness and naïveté at the beginning of the book. That said, one can suspend disbelief enough, especially considering the intended young adult audience, and do so rather easily. ( )

YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Catherine A. Winn
Beyond Suspicion: A Whispering Springs Mystery
The Poisoned Pencil
Paperback, 9781929345106 (also available as an ebook), 230 pgs., $10.95
May 5, 2015

High school sophomore Shelby Palmer has been looking forward to her first boy-girl party, one of her best friend’s sweet sixteen, for a month. She’s got the new dress, the shoes, the makeup — and her “super-cute-walking-electric-shock” crush is going to be there. But when she gets home from school her mother tells her that she and Roger, Shelby’s stepfather, are going out and Shelby will have to babysit her baby brother, Josh. Again.

Shelby takes Josh to the park, one of their favorite spots, trying to take her mind off of her troubles. Shelby is momentarily distracted by a commotion in the park and when she looks back for Josh, he has disappeared. The police don’t believe Shelby when she tells them about the white van she’s seen too many times in her neighborhood. The media doesn’t believe her either, and they set up camp in the front yard of her home. Her friends jump on the bandwagon and trash her all over social media. Since the police aren’t looking for the kidnappers, Shelby will just have to do it herself.

Beyond Suspicion: A Whispering Springs Mystery is Catherine A. Winn’s debut novel, a young adult thriller, the first in a planned series. Overall it’s a good first effort but uneven. Winn does a great job with the sometimes difficult dynamics of blended families and the fickleness of teenagers, but her caricatured portrayal of the police and their overwrought dialogue falls short. On the other hand, Winn has the “tabloid mentality” national media frenzy, “like someone dumped chum in the ocean for sharks,” complete with a Nancy Grace–type talking head, pegged perfectly. Winn’s characters are believable and sympathetic, if not overly complex, and she deftly handles Shelby’s character development, not an easy feat with teenagers. Several shady types muddy the waters, well placed to keep you guessing as to the identity of the culprit(s).

The plot is simple but with plenty of twists and the pacing is brisk, designed to hold the attention of its intended audience. The action accelerates into the final showdown and races to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. Beyond Suspicion shows promise for Winn. Teenagers will identify with Shelby and zip right through Beyond Suspicion, then wait impatiently for the next installment in the series.

Published in Lone Star Literary Life. ( )

A teenage girl (Shelby) takes her one year old step brother (Josh) to the park and he ends up missing. The police and the community target her as the culprit as she resented always being forced to babysit by her parents. It all becomes a media spectacle as she becomes a virtual prisoner in her own home. She eventually feels forced to take the investigation into her own hands to clear her name and bring Josh back home. This a mystery geared to a young adult audience and will resonate with them. ( )

Fifteen-year-old Shelby hates her new stepfather, and wishes her real dad would come back into her life. Ever since her mom married Roger all she does is attend social functions and expect Shelby to babysit her little brother Josh. Shelby is excited to have been invited to her best friend Valerie’s Sweet Sixteen party, and welcomes the chance to hang with her friends.

Read the rest of the review on my blog: https://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/beyond-suspicion-catherine-a... ( )

Shelby is close to her mom, Marianne, and she loves her baby brother, Josh. It’s her step-father, Roger, she doesn’t care for. She feels abandoned by her own father. The party she has been planning to go to for a month is now off – she has to babysit Josh. Still mad and hurt, she makes the best of the situation and takes Josh to the park. She hears fireworks and takes a look. Now Josh is gone and she’s frantic. Her story about having seen a white van is all but ignored and the police consider her their number one suspect. Even her classmates are now saying the most hurtful things imaginable on social media. Then Matt, a senior in her high school, befriends her. She begins to feel like he is the only friend she has. And, bonus plus, her mom and step-father like him.

Sometimes I see a movie and I think ‘over-dramatic’. In a couple of instances that is what I thought when I read this story. First, Shelby’s parents took advantage of her. Her mom was well aware that she’d been planning for a month to attend a party and her mom was onboard with it. But when she came home from school on the day of the party, all of a sudden she needed to babysit her brother and just get over it. Also, it’s not impossible, but I felt it was very unlikely that the police would actually come right out and accuse a fifteen year old girl of murdering and hiding the body of her baby brother. She had absolutely no run-ins with the police in her past, so it was just over the top to me. And yet, my rating remains rather high because the novel is very well-written and immediately grabbed my interest. The story stayed engaging throughout. This is a Young Adult novel and I’d say it is appropriate for 14 and up. Rating: 4 out of 5. ( )