“Turn Left at the Cow” (Juv. Fiction)

Turn Left at the Cow, by Lisa Bullard, is an unfortunate title for a whacking good mystery. Equally uninspiring is the cover art. However, if a reader opens this book he/she is in for an exciting well-paced mystery. Thirteen-year-old Travis slips out of his house in California and ends up at his grandmother’s house in Minnesota.  His reason? Mother has remarried and Travis has little use for the new step-dad. He knows zip about his real dad who vanished before he was born. Maybe Grandma can shed some light on this unknown parent. When he walks through this tiny hamlet, people take notice because he looks like his dad and the last news about his dad was that he committed a bank heist and both the money and his father disappeared. Everyone wants to find the money, including two cousins who live next door. Travis needs to know if he may be the son of a psycho killer and where the cash was stashed.

New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [2013]. Reviewed by Lillian Hecker, Children’s Services Librarian. Ages 10 and up.