Reviews

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens

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rnjana's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

leahthebooklover's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

A Boady Sanden origin story. Readers of Allen Eskens will be familiar with Boady Sanden as a criminal defense attorney who often interacts with another of Eskens' recurring characters, detective Max Rupert. In "Nothing More Dangerous" we meet Boady as a teenager growing up in Jessup, Missouri with his widowed mother. He's dealing with a lot of pressure from a group of bullies at his school. He finds sanctuary in the woods behind his home, until a new family from Minneapolis moves into the empty house across the road, and Boady realizes the land he roams actually belongs to them. His first encounter with Thomas, the new teenage neighbor, does not go well, but eventually the two boys strike up a friendship, despite the fact that Thomas is black. Thomas's father has been sent to Missouri to straighten out some inconsistencies at the local plastics plant. His presence is highly resented by the plant management, who have reason to worry about what might be turned up by an investigation, including embezzlement and the suspicious disappearance of a female employee, Lida Poe. This audiobook was a great one to listen to with my husband on our road trip. We both really enjoyed the story, and its exploration of race, class, and belonging.

donplata's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

lmkramer507's review

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5.0

Best book I've read in a while. I was pulled in from the start and wanted to know what was going to happen. There aren't a lot of books set in this time period (mid-'70s), and to see how racism was still happening in that time was eye-opening. Excellent read.