Murder Mystery

Jack Hazel

Fake ID

By Lamar Giles

Imagine you are stuck in a new city after moving many times, forced to go to a different school and meet new people, and all of a sudden you discover your friend has been murdered. The protagonist, who is called Nick Pearson but whose real name is later revealed to be Tony Bordeaux, is put into this situation in the second half of the murder mystery novel, Fake ID by Lamar Giles. After the first half of the novel, when Nick and his family learn that they will no longer have the protection of the Witness Security Program if they have any more “slip-ups”, Nick finds his new friend Eli dead on the ground one day at school and leads the reader to suspect that he was murdered by Nick’s dad. Nick further investigates and learns new information about his city while learning more and more about Eli’s family while getting closer to Eli’s sister. During this Nick also learns a lot more about his own family and more about a lot of the people at his school.                   

Based on my opinion of this novel, Fake ID is definitely worth reading. One of the reasons why I found this novel so interesting is because there were so many instances in the novel where the author led the reader to believe one thing but then contradicted that thing with something unexpected. During one of the protagonist's conversations, he thinks “I waited, waited to hear, ‘I never got his name, but he’s a tall, black guy. Maybe in his forties. Muscular, mean looking. Come to think of it, Nick, he looks a lot like you if you were older.’ After a labored sigh, ‘It’s a guy people around here don’t talk about much. He runs stuff in town, I mean, the bad stuff. Drugs and things. His name is Miguel Rios’ ”(Giles 192-193). Nick asks a question during his conversation with Dustin, someone he met in his new town, expecting the person that Dustin was talking about to be his father which leads the reader to believe that too but the author reveals that it was a different character from the novel. This was completely unexpected by the protagonist and by me which really grabbed my attention and made me want to read on to figure out how Miguel was the person that Dustin was talking about.
I also enjoyed reading this novel so much because I liked how the author included detailed flashbacks that the protagonist had. Nick describes the shot of a gun in one of his flashbacks; “No boom, more of a POP. The boy slumped sideways, his mouth gaped in an almost scream, leaking. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. I felt tears in me, filling me like a tub, but my body wouldn’t react”(Giles 234). This flashback is so important because it shows how this situation, where he witnessed his dad involved with the murder of a kid, largely impacted him. These flashbacks made the story much more interesting because it led the reader to learn so much more about the protagonist which explained a lot of his thoughts and actions from earlier, and later, in the novel. Another reason for why I found this novel so interesting is because the author contradicted a lot of things in the novel as it went on and made sure to keep almost all of the important characters engaged in the story. The author did a really good job of engaging the reader in Nick and Reya’s relationship which made me want to find out how close they would get but then brought back a character who hadn’t been mentioned in the novel for a long time which added another obstacle for Nick, making me more interested. “Relief faded when a familiar ape in a dingy dress shirt and too-short necktie barged in, having fixed his own plate before coming to console his grieving ex-girlfriend. ‘Hey, babe. I would’ve been here sooner but Coach called an early practice since school was-’ He froze when he saw me on the bed. Hello, Zach Lynch”(Giles 98-99). The way the author did this made it seem like Nick was getting closer to Reya and that they would easily have a good relationship but then threw in an unexpected obstacle which really kept my interest.

I would recommend this book to high school students, specifically boys, that really enjoy reading about a good mystery. This is because I feel like to really enjoy this book you need to connect with the protagonist as I did which means you should to be around the same age as him and identify with some of his problems. Being able to connect with this character is one of the main reasons why I found this story so interesting and I probably wouldn’t have if the protagonist was any different. This novel was also one of the most complex mystery stories I have ever read so if you are a big fan of mysteries and can understand the chain of events that happen well then I definitely would recommend reading this.