Kudzu

Gr 6 Up—When 18-year-old Josh finds himself stuck in small-town Mississippi with a wrecked car, an accusatory sheriff, and no cell service, he has just three days to solve a mysterious break-in, clear his name, and make it to his one-week intensive college course. This story of a city kid turned amateur sleuth moves at an accessible pace, with hints of clean romance and plenty of nods to the wunderkind mystery genre. Osbeck uses familiar tropes and clinical observation to lead readers through a peculiar mystery. Her past as a screenwriter reveals itself in the way cinematic descriptions of setting overshadow characters' internal emotions. Perspectives shift unevenly throughout the novel, and at least a quarter of the text is devoted to Josh's own mystery short story, which serves largely to rehash the novel's plot. The text mentions its titular plant several times, but without any real significance beyond the greenery persistence, so what might have been a clue instead becomes a confusing add-on. The tone shift between Josh's framed story and the novel's general plot is nearly imperceptible. What could certainly have been an intriguing, original, and modern short story homage to the likes of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle is instead needlessly drawn out and repeated over 200 pages. Still, a clever ending twist makes up for some of the text's other flaws.