Terri Fields

Fields’s young adult novel starts as one kind of book, psychological fiction with mystery elements, and concludes as another type altogether: a thriller. Seventeen-year-old Phoenix high-school student, Kevin Windor, is doing his homework in front of the TV one evening when there’s breaking news about the arrest of a serial killer who has been terrorizing the tristate area for the past couple of years. The killer has been dubbed “DB25” for the mark he leaves on his female victims. The police have just apprehended this violent criminal climbing from his tenth victim’s bathroom window. Film footage clearly shows a handcuffed Greg Windor, Kevin’s dad, a successful, savvy computer company employee, being pushed into a cop car. Joyce Garlen, a woman in her thirties, has been taken to hospital. She’s sustained serious injuries and is comatose. Only one other of DB25's victims has survived his attacks.

Kevin’s parents divorced when he was a toddler, but he has always enjoyed a close, warm, and relaxed relationship with his dad, who’s able to shower him with luxuries (including a high-end jeep) that his mom, a conscientious woman who works in a low-wage job, cannot.

The author is restrained in her description of Greg Windor’s crimes. To her credit, Fields is not interested in the grisly and sensational, but rather in the difficulties a son has in coming to terms with his beloved father not being the man everyone thought he was. The teenager’s struggle to accept that his dad could be capable of such heinous crimes is convincing. The fact that Kevin is a dead ringer for Greg adds to the tension. Even complete strangers gasp when they see him. Fields effectively portrays the many challenges Kevin faces at school, with his friends, and from the media. At times, the high-school student loses control. He’s suspended twice for serious physical altercations, shocking himself and others. Is he his father’s son in more than appearance?

One of the hardest things Kevin faces is his incarcerated dad’s uncharacteristic rejection of him. Greg Windor makes it clear he does not want to see his son. One Saturday, the young man waits for hours in a visitors’ line at the prison, only to be told by a guard that his father has declined the meeting.

Kevin has several interactions with Greg’s high-powered attorney. Initially, the boy is enraged by the lawyer's failure to do enough for his dad, who, Kevin firmly believes, has been wrongly accused. In time, however, as he learns more about the crimes, becomes increasingly worn down by the media circus, and faces the damning DNA evidence, Kevin is forced to accept his father’s guilt.

While Fields’s novel is readable and moves at a suspenseful clip, its overall effect is weakened by plot elements that seem more convenient than credible. For instance, Kevin’s mom goes off on a work-training trip, providing her son with the freedom to dig up details about Greg’s background that she refused to disclose. On another occasion, an old friend of hers also just happens to be in town when Kevin wants information about his parents’ brief marriage (something else his mom won’t talk about). The police investigation of the attack on Joyce Garlen isn’t fully convincing either. When it comes to crimes of the sort Kevin's dad has been charged with, detectives would certainly interview the family. However, not once do the police phone or come to call on Kevin and his mother. The twisty thriller-like conclusion was also hard to buy. While I suspect many in the target audience might be less critical of the novel than I am, I still think that some would recognize that Fields wasn’t entirely clear on the kind of book she actually wanted to write. Consequently, although this is a diverting and sometimes absorbing read, it is ultimately not an entirely successful or memorable one.… (mer)