Holding Smoke

Gr 9 Up—In juvenile detention, where John Conlan is serving time (he was convicted of a double murder but was spared from adult prison to avoid being near his father), he's known as Smoke and deals in information. Want to find out if your girl is faithful? If your mom is okay? Ask Smoke. His fellow inmates assume that he has strong connections on the outside, but the truth is he can go outside—sort of. A few years earlier, the teen was beaten to death by his father, then revived by the EMTs. He now exists somewhere between life and death and is able to leave his body and slip through the prison walls while everyone is sleeping. The tenuous grip his spirit has on his body is weakening, and he's beginning to think the information he digs up is doing more harm than good, so he's decided to quit his side job completely. When one of his last fact-finding missions leads him to a tough and alluring girl named Pink and he comes across some information that might point to who actually committed the crime he was accused of, Smoke realizes that he has to stay in the game, even though it's getting more dangerous by the day. The story plods along, and the gritty tone results in a feeling of coldness rather than suspense.