Acceleration [NOOK Book]

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Overview

It’s a hot, hot summer, and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority’s Lost and Found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging lost things and sifting through accumulated junk. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan’s just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book. It’s a diary filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a ...
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More About This Book

Overview

It’s a hot, hot summer, and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority’s Lost and Found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging lost things and sifting through accumulated junk. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan’s just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book. It’s a diary filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. And Duncan can’t make himself stop reading.

What would you do with a book like that? How far would you go to catch a madman?

And what if time was running out. . . .


From the Hardcover edition.

Winner of the 2004 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
A teen discovers a diary in which the writer plots a murder, so he enlists his friends to help him catch the would-be murderer. In a starred review, PW said this "taut novel reads like a fast-paced nail-biter of a movie." Ages 12-up. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
KLIATT
The dramatic cover of a young man's eyes staring ahead will grab potential readers for this thriller, set in Toronto. It is written by the author of Hate You, which was an ALA Best Book for YAs. The narrator is haunted by the events of a previous summer when he failed to rescue a drowning girl; this summer he has a boring job in the bowels of the Toronto subway system working in the lost and found department. He can keep busy sorting through the items and reading the left-behind books-and it is a journal he finds that starts this action. The journal records the horrors of a sadistic person who tortures animals and stalks women. The narrator, Duncan, decides to try to discover the identity of this monster to stop him, and the chase begins. The action is exciting and believable. Duncan's friends are also believable: from the quote on the back of the book, "Me and you going after this guy," Vinny says, "it's like the Hardy Boys meet Hannibal Lecter." High school students won't find this too tame. KLIATT Codes: JS-Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Random House, Wendy Lamb Books, 210p., Ages 12 to 18.
— Claire Rosser
More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Seventeen-year-old Duncan is haunted by the fact that he was unable to save a drowning girl a few yards away one fateful afternoon the previous September. This summer he has a job working underground at the Toronto subway lost and found where he uncovers, amid the piles of forgotten junk, an opportunity to exorcise his own guilty demons. When business is slow, Duncan spends his time rummaging through dusty shelves and boxes of unclaimed items. During one of these sessions, he uncovers a strange, leather-bound book that turns out to be the diary of a would-be serial killer. Unable to tear himself from the gory descriptions of tortured animals and arson, he discovers that the writer has started to stalk women on the subway. When the police seem disinterested, the teen takes matters into his own hands, and with the aid of his two best friends, tries to track and trap the murderer before he can strike. This chilling page-turner is all thrills, and the author cleverly manipulates readers' sense of disbelief by eliminating the possibility of police help or parental understanding. What results is one teen's self-conscious yet fast-paced journey into the mind of a cold-blooded killer, and the resulting manhunt will keep readers on the edge of their seats.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Seventeen-year-old Duncan hates his summer job in the lost-and-found department of the Toronto Transit Commission. In his office below the subway tunnels, Duncan sorts through and retrieves items lost on buses and trains: a golf club, sunglasses, giant thong underwear, umbrellas, and cell phones. When he looks through a lost diary and finds a would-be murderer's plans for his first victim, he decides to hunt him down. Having failed recently in an attempt to save a drowning girl, he sees this as a chance to redeem himself and stop his nightmares. Enlisting his wise-guy friends, Vinny and Wayne, he stalks the stalker and finds himself in over his head. The creepy, morgue-like setting and the friendship among the teenaged boys are well-drawn, with a fair amount of humor to balance the chills. Though readers may wonder why Duncan fails to consider certain obvious points along the way, this is a well-written, read-it-in-one-gulp thriller. (Fiction. 12+)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307510228
  • Publisher: Random House Children's Books
  • Publication date: 12/18/2008
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 240
  • Sales rank: 62,928
  • File size: 5 MB

Meet the Author

Graham McNamee is the author of three novels. His novel Sparks won the first PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship.


From the Hardcover edition.

Read an Excerpt

One

This is a nightmare.

Working at the Toronto Transit Commission's lost and found. Nine to five. Monday to Friday. A little slice of death, one day at a time.

For me it's a two-month sentence, July and August. I would have been happy bumming around till September, but Dad called in a favor to get me in here. And at least I don't have to wear a uniform like my bud Wayne over at the Dairy Barn. Wayne's planning to torch the thing on Labor Day (the uniform, not the Barn) before we head back for our last year of high school.

So I'm here under protest, a political prisoner of the capitalist overlord otherwise known as Dad.

Here's the one-minute tour of the place. First, to get here you have to come to Bay subway station and take the service elevator down to the subbasement. At the end of the hall to your left you'll find the door marked lost and found. Jacob, my supervisor, sits at the front counter cataloguing the lost junk that comes in from the buses and subways in the transit system. If you think of a half-deflated soccer ball with two of the hairiest ears you've ever seen attached to it, you've got a good picture of Jacob. Past the counter there's a maze of stacks holding row after row, shelf after dusty shelf of lost stuff.

I'm trying on a black leather jacket in the stacks when the bell at the counter dings. The jacket's term expires in a week, so it'll soon be appearing in my closet as part of the Duncan collection. One ding of the bell means Jacob needs me to search for something. Two dings means hurry up. Three dings--things get ugly.

When I get to the counter, Jacob's asking an old woman about the weather up on the surface. Spending eight hours a day in this dungeon, you tend to forget that the sun is still shining up there.

"They say it's going to hit a hundred and three today," the woman tells him. "Not a cloud in the sky."

It's been six weeks with no rain. Major heat wave. But down here you'd never know. The city could be bombed to ashes and we'd still be here sorting through the piles.

"Duncan, we're looking for a pair of glasses," Jacob tells me. "Silver frames. Bifocals."

I sigh. "Right. This might take a while."

Eyeglasses rank in the top four on the list of most often lost items, right up there with umbrellas, cell phones, and books.

I'm the runner, the one who does the actual searching. Jacob does the actual sitting.

I don't know who did this job before me--don't know if anybody did it before me--but the place is a mess. The way it works, stuff gets held here for three months. Everything's got a Post-it with an expiration date. Anything unclaimed gets boxed up for the quarterly sale down at the YMCA. But if you poke around, you'll find stuff that's been here for two years or more. I pulled a college sweater off the top shelf the other day, and the dust coming off it drifted down like snow.

Lost junk is organized in sections. All the jackets are together, including my black leather beauty. Dozens of umbrellas are heaped in a pile, enough rain protection to keep every last flea on Noah's ark dry. There's a library of forgotten books overflowing the packed shelves. And there are two boxes of eyeglasses, separated into sunglasses and regular. I dig in.

There's an amazing variety, everything from prescription swimming goggles to your basic thick-black-framed geek glasses to your old-lady specials with the necklace holders attached to the arms. I find a pair that fits the lady's description--bifocals, silver frames. Holding them up to peer through the lenses, I see they've got enough magnifying power to count the hairs on a mosquito's butt.

"That's them," the old woman says after trying them on.

Jacob makes her sign the claims book, as if the glasses are worth more than the dollar they'd get at the Y sale.

"I'm lost without these," she tells us. "I'm so blind without them, I didn't realize until I was halfway here that I'd put hand lotion on my face instead of sunscreen. I can already feel a burn starting up."

Jacob nods. "Yeah. With the holes in the ozone and global warming, the sun's not as friendly as it used to be."

The woman shivers, pulling her jacket closed. "Well, it's certainly cool down here."

"We're about fifty feet underground--deeper than the subway tunnels--so the temperature stays a constant cool year-round. This must be what it feels like to be buried alive." That's Jacob's idea of funny. I think he's been down here too long.

The woman gives him a nervous look and mumbles her thanks as she makes for the door.

"You've really got a way with the ladies," I say when she's gone.

No response.

I fill a paper cup at the cooler, leaning on it as it gurgles to itself, and watch the clock crawl toward eternity. Jacob goes back to reading the newspaper.

Past him, there's a glass case on the wall that once held a fire axe but now has an artificial leg standing inside. That leg is like the official mascot of all the forgotten junk in the lost and found. There's a worn-down blue men's Puma running shoe on its foot, and it's obviously been well used. It always gets me wondering--how do you lose something like that? I mean, didn't the guy notice something was missing when he went hopping off the subway--that the world was bouncing up and down more than usual? What happened, that he never came back to claim it? Jacob says the thing's been here for three years.


From the Hardcover edition.

First Chapter

One

This is a nightmare.

Working at the Toronto Transit Commission's lost and found. Nine to five. Monday to Friday. A little slice of death, one day at a time.

For me it's a two-month sentence, July and August. I would have been happy bumming around till September, but Dad called in a favor to get me in here. And at least I don't have to wear a uniform like my bud Wayne over at the Dairy Barn. Wayne's planning to torch the thing on Labor Day (the uniform, not the Barn) before we head back for our last year of high school.

So I'm here under protest, a political prisoner of the capitalist overlord otherwise known as Dad.

Here's the one-minute tour of the place. First, to get here you have to come to Bay subway station and take the service elevator down to the subbasement. At the end of the hall to your left you'll find the door marked lost and found. Jacob, my supervisor, sits at the front counter cataloguing the lost junk that comes in from the buses and subways in the transit system. If you think of a half-deflated soccer ball with two of the hairiest ears you've ever seen attached to it, you've got a good picture of Jacob. Past the counter there's a maze of stacks holding row after row, shelf after dusty shelf of lost stuff.

I'm trying on a black leather jacket in the stacks when the bell at the counter dings. The jacket's term expires in a week, so it'll soon be appearing in my closet as part of the Duncan collection. One ding of the bell means Jacob needs me to search for something. Two dings means hurry up. Three dings--things get ugly.

When I get to the counter, Jacob's asking an old woman about the weather up on the surface.Spending eight hours a day in this dungeon, you tend to forget that the sun is still shining up there.

"They say it's going to hit a hundred and three today," the woman tells him. "Not a cloud in the sky."

It's been six weeks with no rain. Major heat wave. But down here you'd never know. The city could be bombed to ashes and we'd still be here sorting through the piles.

"Duncan, we're looking for a pair of glasses," Jacob tells me. "Silver frames. Bifocals."

I sigh. "Right. This might take a while."

Eyeglasses rank in the top four on the list of most often lost items, right up there with umbrellas, cell phones, and books.

I'm the runner, the one who does the actual searching. Jacob does the actual sitting.

I don't know who did this job before me--don't know if anybody did it before me--but the place is a mess. The way it works, stuff gets held here for three months. Everything's got a Post-it with an expiration date. Anything unclaimed gets boxed up for the quarterly sale down at the YMCA. But if you poke around, you'll find stuff that's been here for two years or more. I pulled a college sweater off the top shelf the other day, and the dust coming off it drifted down like snow.

Lost junk is organized in sections. All the jackets are together, including my black leather beauty. Dozens of umbrellas are heaped in a pile, enough rain protection to keep every last flea on Noah's ark dry. There's a library of forgotten books overflowing the packed shelves. And there are two boxes of eyeglasses, separated into sunglasses and regular. I dig in.

There's an amazing variety, everything from prescription swimming goggles to your basic thick-black-framed geek glasses to your old-lady specials with the necklace holders attached to the arms. I find a pair that fits the lady's description--bifocals, silver frames. Holding them up to peer through the lenses, I see they've got enough magnifying power to count the hairs on a mosquito's butt.

"That's them," the old woman says after trying them on.

Jacob makes her sign the claims book, as if the glasses are worth more than the dollar they'd get at the Y sale.

"I'm lost without these," she tells us. "I'm so blind without them, I didn't realize until I was halfway here that I'd put hand lotion on my face instead of sunscreen. I can already feel a burn starting up."

Jacob nods. "Yeah. With the holes in the ozone and global warming, the sun's not as friendly as it used to be."

The woman shivers, pulling her jacket closed. "Well, it's certainly cool down here."

"We're about fifty feet underground--deeper than the subway tunnels--so the temperature stays a constant cool year-round. This must be what it feels like to be buried alive." That's Jacob's idea of funny. I think he's been down here too long.

The woman gives him a nervous look and mumbles her thanks as she makes for the door.

"You've really got a way with the ladies," I say when she's gone.

No response.

I fill a paper cup at the cooler, leaning on it as it gurgles to itself, and watch the clock crawl toward eternity. Jacob goes back to reading the newspaper.

Past him, there's a glass case on the wall that once held a fire axe but now has an artificial leg standing inside. That leg is like the official mascot of all the forgotten junk in the lost and found. There's a worn-down blue men's Puma running shoe on its foot, and it's obviously been well used. It always gets me wondering--how do you lose something like that? I mean, didn't the guy notice something was missing when he went hopping off the subway--that the world was bouncing up and down more than usual? What happened, that he never came back to claim it? Jacob says the thing's been here for three years.

Reading Group Guide

1. If you had found the diary, what would you have done?

2. Duncan’s summer job sounds awful and depressing; he works underground for most of the day. What other horrible summer jobs can you think of? What do you think would be a good summer job?

3. Duncan works in a lost and found, surrounded by other people’s belongings. Have you ever lost something important to you? Did you eventually get it back?

4. Duncan and his friends, Vinny and Wayne, are all very different from each other. How does their friendship work?

5. Where do you think Duncan, Wayne, and Vinny will be four years from now?

6. Why do you think the police ignore Duncan’s pleas to look into the diary? Is it because he’s a kid? What would you have done in Duncan’s situation?

7. Do people like Roach really exist? Why would someone act that way?

8. People tell Duncan, “Don’t be a hero.” What do they mean by that?

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 71 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(39)

4 Star

(24)

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(3)

2 Star

(2)

1 Star

(3)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 71 Customer Reviews

  • Posted April 10, 2009

    Accelerate in a Great Thriller

    Book Review Outline
    Book title and author: Acceleration by: Graham McNamee
    Title of review: Accelerate in A Great Thriller
    Number of stars:

    Introduction
    If you start to read this wonderful, pulse pounding book, you'll not be able to put it down. I read this book in one day, front to back. This is a great thriller and the author did a great job of capturing the details and emotions. The characters are great, and you feel as if you are them while reading. Please read this book, If you do.you'll never regret it!
    Description and summary of main points
    This book is about a seventeen year old boy named Duncan that works for the lost and found in a very popular subway. One day, doing his daily rounds, he discovers a brown journal, that he later finds out is owned by a serial killer. The book held all of his plans and the descriptions of his prey. It seemed as if he kept all of his crimes written down and all the newspaper clippings of the crimes. But, as he was reading, Duncan noticed that the last couple of pages in the journal had no date on them. He realized that now he had a serial killer on the loose going after these poor girls. The killer was going to work out his plan, and soon. Duncan had to formulate a plan and stalk the stalker, kill the killer. This was going to be a mighty task, but he had courage, he had strength.
    Evaluation
    How Graham creates such a picture and emotion in the story is just amazing. He adds great sensory details and states his points obviously, but creatively also. At the end of every chapter, he'll surprise you..I guess so that you want to read the next chapter to find out what's going on. That's exactly how it was with me; I heard something new about the characters and freaked out wanting to know what it was about.

    Conclusion
    This is the greatest book ever written for man. If you haven't read it yet, you need to. I am the type of person that doesn't like to read much..it makes no sense to me. But, I got lucky and picked up Acceleration and just really fell in love, fell in love with the book and it led me to fall in love with just reading.

    Your final review

    This book leads you right into the story. Most books start off slow and get good in the end, but this book starts off strong and gets your heart beating. You just can't put it down, you can try, but you won't succeed.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 27, 2011

    Amazing novel

    This is one of those books that keeps you awake at night or causes your. mind to wander while sitting in a math class. It is truly a great novel, well written,full of suspense and nail biting action. I would recomend this to anyone.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 25, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

    Duncan is having a very boring summer, working at his mind-numbing job at the Toronto Transit Authority's lost and found. He sorts through old junk no one wants anymore and boxes up all of the "expired" items to be donated.

    One very ordinary day he was looking for a book to read when he comes across a brown leather bound journal. He begins reading it and soon figures out that the person who is writing this is seriously deranged! It's like this journal is the book of weird and twisted science experiments this person has been conducting. There are even women in the book that he follows that he plans on killing.

    Duncan, along with his two best friends, take it upon themselves to find out who this freak is!

    I really liked this book. The story is very addictive; I couldn't put it down!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 22, 2012

    AMAZING

    Just got this book today and cant put it down. I am alreay on page 69.I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 11, 2012

    Terrible....

    I didnt like this book one bit, i borrowed it from my teacher cuz he said it was good...in my opinion it was the worst book ive ever read...it didnt keep my attention, i would never take it home to read it..i would only read it wen i absolutely HAD too, i wouldnt recommend this at all!!!!

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 4, 2011

    Excellent book

    The author did a fantastic job delving into the mind of a madman.

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  • Posted October 18, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    AWESOME MYSTERY TEEN BOOK!!!!!!

    Someone asked if this was a early teen book and yes I think it could be for anyone over the age of 12... maybe 11 depending on how much they like this type pf book. There is hardly any bad language which is hard to find in a good book, it caught me from the begining, great character formation. Overall very very good book!!!!!!!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2011

    Good

    Awsome book

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  • Posted August 18, 2011

    GOOD WORK.

    This book was filled with life experiences that touched me in a way the I easily related too. Cant wait to see what is next from thus author

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 23, 2011

    aotsta Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!

    Best book evet!!

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  • Posted July 6, 2011

    Jxvbnbbnvgv

    Is this for young teens Very yiung teens respond someone

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 25, 2011

    Amazing!

    This book is a murder mystery that makes you want to keep on reading till the very end.

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  • Posted May 6, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    9780385746588

    Amazing Book!

    Graham Mcnamee won me over with this book. I'll definitely keep my eye out for books by him in the future!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 6, 2008

    Young Adult Readers- Text Recommended

    I reviewed this text along side others for consideration in the Young Adult Classroom. Graham McNamee¿s Acceleration, winner of the ALA best book for Young Adults, proves to be as the award proclaims, ¿appealing and quality for readers between 12-18.¿ Acceleration is a graphic and narrative blend of realistic fiction that plays with traditional elements of the Psycho Thriller and Mystery novel. The novel takes off in the Toronto Transit lost and found department. Seventeen year old Duncan is reluctantly working to catalog lost and found belongings when he stumbles across a leather bound journal of dark secrets and murderous desires. After some encouragement from his friends he decides to submit the plans to harm an unknown girl on the subway to the police, only to find that they are not too interested in the pursuit. Duncan enlists the help of his two close friends and together they research the journal logs of criminal patterns, and scope the library to try to determine the next move of the potential serial killer. The Psycho Thriller elements, a violent resolution and Duncan¿s mental and emotional conflicts, offer both fast pace and action for the reader. Duncan, a teenager turned amateur detective, poses as the hero- one who possibly saves an innocent girl. But is he? Or is he just a glorified Vigilante, a person who ignores the due processes of law to enact his own form of justice? You will have to decide!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 29, 2008

    A great mystery!

    Biography: Graham McNamee was born in Toronto, Canada, in August of 1967. His writing began in high school when he took a creative writing course. He got suspended for being 'overly confrontational', and failed the course. A few years down the road, he entered a competition for writing a young adult novel. Whoever won got their book published. Graham ended up coming in second place, but his book was published anyway. That was his first book, Hate You which is an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. His next novel, Sparks, won the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. Acceleration is his third and latest novel which received the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. Currently, Graham McNamee works at the Vancouver Public Library. Summary: There¿s a killer on the loose and Duncan, a high school student, becomes the detective after finding the psycho¿s diary at the Lost and Found. The diary is full of the killer¿s thoughts and past actions which lead Duncan to believe the man is out to get more. No one else knows about the diary, except Duncan¿s friend, Vinny, and the police who show no interest in the matter. Vinny and Duncan discover all sorts of clues to in order to crack the case, yet some fall through. In the end, Duncan¿ wait, what am I doing? The end is for you to find out. Read Acceleration and find out whether the killer is caught or not! Review: Now I know why they have the saying ¿Don¿t judge a book by its cover.¿ I expected the story to be a bit more frightening due to the design of the cover, but once I began to read it and got further and further into it, it was not what I predicted it to be. I enjoyed the book and was constantly caught into what the main character, Duncan, was doing and thinking. His interest in the diary and wanting to find the guy kept me anxious to discover what would happen. I did not expect the ending to be what it was. I thought there would be a bigger and exciting ending. The descriptions and events kept my attention throughout. I loved book and would recommend it to any young reader who loves a mystery!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 28, 2008

    Great read.

    It was a quick read for me, but it was a good book. I'd recommend it to anyone. I'm thinking about getting Graham's new book 'Bone Chiller' any good?

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 23, 2008

    The Little Brown Book

    Acceleration is a book about a boy named Duncan that loves to swim. Well, he used to at least. The problem is that he tried to save a girl that was drowning but he couldn¿t reach her in time and she died. So that made him think that it was his fault. His friends tried to cheer him up, but it doesn¿t work. He quits swimming and gets a job working underneath the subway station in the lost and found. Duncan¿s job is to sort all of the stuff that comes down their and mark the dates of when they came in. He gets to look through the stuff and he finds some cool stuff. When the item has been in the lost and found for two weeks it goes to the YMCA garage sale. One time Duncan found a little brown leather book that had stuff about killing cats and starting fires in it. It also had plans about killing people. Duncan thought the author had a sick mind, so he tried to bring it to the police, but they wouldn¿t take it. So he decided to go after the person himself. What happens from there? You will need to read Acceleration to find out. I liked the whole storyline of the book. I thought it was cool how the book was written because it was very suspenseful and I just had to keep on reading. I couldn¿t put the book down. I thought it almost went into too much detail when it talked about Duncan in the beginning, and it didn¿t have enough detail in the end. Acceleration is not part of a series. This book reminds me of another book I read but I don¿t remember what it was called, and it was about a teenage boy that was and inspector. I think this book would be enjoyed by a lot of teenage boys.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 16, 2008

    Stalk the Stalker...

    Duncan is an adolescent boy growing up in a trashy Toronto neighbor he and his pals like to call the ¿Jungle¿. He is employed at a local subway transit¿s Lost and Found, a job he loathes. Every day is the same monotonous routine: people come, Jacob, the other worker there, tells Duncan to find the lost possession, Duncan gives it to them, and they leave. That is, until the day he finds a little brown leather book. There are no titles, no names, and nothing that would help to distinguish an owner. But, the owner has written in it. Duncan decides to read the book for some reason or another. It is the journal of a potential serial killer. Acceleration is a good novel worthy of the four stars I gave it. However, it is not worth more. It has a plausible dilemma and good action in the end. However, it is being dragged down from a perfect five stars because it is somewhat slow-paced and unsuspenseful in the beginning sequences. The humor is quite funny as well, which helps the rating remain a four. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries or suspense novels.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 16, 2008

    A Man on a Mission to Stop a Killer

    Duncan is a older teenage boy on summer break. He lives in Toronto, Canada, and his two best friends are Vinny and Wayne. For the summer, Duncan is working in the subway stations lost and found. He doesn¿t like his job because it is very boring, but one day, he was going through some junk on the lost and found shelves and he finds a diary. This diary isn¿t normal though, it is a potential killer¿s diary and it has information on three potential victims. Duncan tries to give the diary to the police, but they don¿t seem very interested because it could be anyone¿s diary and nothing has happened yet. What should Duncan do? I liked this book because it was very exciting and it always kept you wondering whose diary it could be. The book never switched narrators so it was very easy to follow along in. I couldn¿t really relate to this book at all. The book started out kind of slow but about a third of the way in it really picked up until the end. This book is not part of a series. This book Acceleration, reminds me a lot of the T.V. show C.S.I or other criminal shows similar to C.S.I. I think many people would enjoy this book. I recommend this book for seventh to ninth grade boys who love watching criminal shows. I have never read any books like this before, so I can¿t really relate it to other books or authors. Though, I am glad I read this book Acceleration, by Graham McNamee.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 14, 2008

    Quite a rush for mystery lovers!!!

    This book is a winner of the Edgar Award for best young adult mystery which is a very big accomplishment. For people who are into mystery books like myself, this is just the book for you. I personally felt it was the best novel that I have ever read in it's category because it is a heart-pounding thriller with a whole lot of suspense. The title 'Acceleration' might not seem like the right title for the story but yet it does seem to make sense since this book will make the rate of her heart accelerate with excitement that makes you want to read more and more. The book 'Acceleration' takes place in Toronto, Canada. A 17 year old teen named Duncan is the main character that often gets into trouble with his friends and works at the Toronto Transit Commision's lost and found. One day during Duncan's work hours he finds a diary in the lost and found while cleaning and decides to read it and finds out that it belongs to a serial killer that stalks women before he kills them. He decides to first deliver the diary to the police station but is looked at as a joke due to his recent behavoir and nobody believes him. Duncan then decides to take on the responsibility of searching along with a few of his friends for this serial killer before he can hurt anyone else. The autor Graham McNamee, does an excellent job giving the story a good start, middle, and excellent finish with each containing gripping twists. The book is not very long while only containing 210 pages but it is well worth every minute of it because even though it is not long, there is enough within those pages to actually attach you to the book and pull you into the storyline making you feel like your in the main character's shoes which is pretty amazing for a book of this length to do that. Many people who have read this book turned out to be very happy and glad that they read such a good book. Some say that it might start off a bit slow but once you get futher through it then everything begins to fall into place and it becomes a hard book to put down. Every bit of detail that you would expect from a book are within those 210 pages of suspense. When I first read the book it was really hard for me to put down since the whole storyline was so addicting that it made you want to find out what was going to happen next. The characters in the story each play a good role since they reflect on some of the decisions that Duncan makes which may impact the story. It is my personal favorite in suspense because of the specific gruesomeness that the author goes into with that may put scary images in your head. The author also does a fantastic job of making the story come to life since the whole point of the story is obviously realistic and the events that occur mainly repeat themselves in our society today even know it is hard to admit it but that is the truth. I would most definitely not want to be in the main character's situation first of all because he is hunting a serial killer and secondly the fact that the police dont believe him is also a problem. A quote in the book that states 'Your life's in danger. There's this serial killer in training who's got his eye on you. Look at what he wrote in these pages here.' This statement proves that Duncan was serious when he said that he was going to search for the serial killer so he doesn't hurt anyone else and at that moment of the book, he is trying to help someone that doesn't know that they are in danger. The quote also reflects on the entire story since he is doing what he set out to do which was to prevent bad things from happening to innocent people. I enjoyed this story a whole lot and I recommend it to anyone who is into mystery and horror novels.

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