Book review: Blacklands

I just finished Blacklands by Belinda Bauer. I'm not over the moon about it, but I didn't hate it. I recommend it, and if that may seem weird because of that last sentence, read more to find out why. :)

Blacklands is the story of a boy, Steven Lamb, who's uncle Billy was murdered before Steven was born. The body was never found. Ever since his uncle's death, Steven's grandmother has been distant from his mom. She's always been distant and hard on Steven and his little brother, Davey. Steven thinks that if he can find his uncle's body, his mother and grandmother will get along better and his family will be happier. He spends his spare time digging in the moor near his town, figuring that's where the body would have been buried. After a while, he decides it might help his search if he talks to the man who was suspected in Billy's death--and who was convicted of the murder of a number of other young children around Billy's age, all of whom had been raped before being murdered.

Steven writes to Arnold Avery in prison. Arnold relishes in reading Steven's letters, because they take him back to his crimes. He writes back to Steven and the two of them have a correspondence that becomes kind of like a treasure hunt. Steven asks Arnold for help, and Arnold only gives information about other victims of his. At his request, Steven sends Arnold a photo of the moor. Arnold gets very very excited about that, and while examining the picture, he notices that Steven managed to photograph himself in the side mirror of a car that is in the corner of the picture. That makes him even more excited, because he can see that the SL he's been writing to is a 12 year old boy. He decides he must escape from prison.

The book was good, but it was kind of slow, which is impressive because it's only 221 pages long. The last 20 pages, though, were well worth it. I recommend it mainly for the last 20 pages.