Giles does an excellent job with the plot and character development, keeping readers, including me, unsure about the culprit's (or culprits') identity.

If there is a bit too much foreshadowing for my taste, well, it does help make Nick an even more likable and relatable character than he already is. Nick's smart first-person narration propels the suspenseful story to its dramatic conclusion. It doesn't gloss over the darker or seedier elements (after all, Nick's family is in Witness Protection because his dad knowingly worked for a bad guy, not because someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time), but uses them to ground the story in a very realistic way. Their girl, or their spot on the team, or whatever attention they craved.' But by then Eli is dead and it's left to Nick and Eli's sister to uncover the truth about what really happened to Eli.įake ID is great new YA mystery novel by Lamar Giles. Mostly, people were scared that I'd come to their school to take something from them. Later, Nick realizes, 'Of all the places I'd been, all the kids I met, was the first to ever ask me to be a part of anything.

Eli, Nick's classmate and maybe his first friend in Stepton, is investigating Whispertown but refuses at first to tell Nick about it. It's called Whispertown, this mysterious project that has Nick's dad-no stranger to furtive plots-so nervous. Nick's dad gets caught up in some mysterious, secretive business-not for the first time-but this one's got him nervous. They pumped storm clouds and gave the air a scent you could taste.'Īnd in Stepton, it's not just the air that's polluted.

They've been relocated, again, this time to the rundown town of Stepton, where 'here was a chemical plant on the edge of town, its thick stacks sticking up over trees like a giant chain-smoker's cigarettes. But his father snitched on Maric, who soon disappeared, and Nick's family has been in the Witness Protection program ever since. After all, this is the fifth time in the past few years he's gone through this.įour years ago, back when Nick was still just a kid named Tony and living in Philadelphia, his father worked for a gangster, handling Kreso Maric's money. Nick is used to being the new kid at school.

Fake ID by Lamar Giles