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Very popular for his crime thrillers, author John Grisham once said in interview which summarizes something like Harry Potter is the character whose books are sold more than mine! May be inspired from the same he went on to write for the kids. Well, he didn’t change the genre of writing. But went on writing Crime Thrillers (or Legal Thrillers) with ease, which are more like adventures.
| Book Title | : | Theodore Boone: The Abduction |
 
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| Author | : | ohn Grisham | |
| Publisher | : | Hodder Paperbacks (12 June 2011) | |
| Total Pages | : | 256 | |
| Purchase Links | : |
Buy Theodore Boone: The Abduction from Amazon India Buy Theodore Boone : the Abduction from Flipkart |
He came up with a character named Theodore “Theo” Boone as the protagonist. The character have the knowledge of stuff from a lawyers point of view, yet there is innocence and child-like curiosity found in the same. For example in this book itself; we found Theo analyzing the shop sign boards claiming – The Best …. in the world. He thought that how can so and so product be the best in the world or famous in the world if there are only one or two students know about it in his entire school!!! After analyzing some such cases he came to a conclusion regarding use of superlative language in Advertising. Now this is something which let people think of the character as a teenager rather than a full grown man.
The book Theodore Boone: The Abduction is the second in the series and the plot revolve around an abduction (of course).
Below given are the main characters of the Book:
| Character | Info |
|---|---|
| Theodore “Theo” Boone | The Protagonist – Kid Lawyer |
| April Finnemore | Theo’s best friend – who was abducted |
| Marcella Boone | Theo’s mother – a lawyer |
| Woods Boone | Theo’s father – a lawyer |
| Ike Boone | Theo’s uncle |
| Jack Leeper | April’s distant cousin – suspect of the abduction |
| Chase Whipple | Theo’s friend |
| May Finnemore | April’s mother |
| Tommy Finnemore | April’s father |
| Judge | Theo’s dog |
| and others…. |
John understands the canvas of the book and he restricts himself in writing to make sure to be as natural as possible for his characters. The sentence are quite simple and effective. Not too much of heavy language is used. It makes a good read for the young age readers as well. The protagonist have his own problems like other kids, for example he found excuses to avoid school and he is even having Asthma problem. He is not the best athlete in his group. But he has a strong will to do what he think is proper. He even know how to step back and make compromise when needed. The character of Theo is explored well.
The capture of Jack and his conversation with detectives in the prison, is simple yet effective. The basics of the Miranda law is explained (We found the references of this law in Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi starrer – Stay Hungry). In short, the book follows the language which is simple yet effective.
John also succeed in creating mystery around Arpil, without mentioning much about her till more than half the book at least, this is author’s victory. The characters are completely natural. The kid – Theo – is emotional and found crying at various places in the book, which is correct for the children of his age. Sometimes though, some explanations affect the pace of this thriller, but considering the book’s target audience we can overlook it. He also explains the evening meals of a busy family where both husband-wife are living active professional life, effectively. Also the track of Theo’s uncle is interesting. He has confidantes in the world of crime and they are good source of information for him. See how he pass on the information to Theo. It is also good to see the kiddish attribute in Theo again when he announced that around 9:00am in the morning the police is going to make an announcement. He however able to skip the embarrassing situation after a couple of hours of the same. But he did learn the lesson to not to do stuff in hurry and mainly in immatureness!
The story is something like this. April Finnermore, the best friend of Theodore Boone was found missing from her home. Though there are no evidence of any violence found at her home, she was thought abducted. Theo knew that she was frightened that night, Theo at the same time also got to know that he knows a very little about her. But so what, she was his best friend and he have to do something to get her out of any trouble. Determined to do something for April, Theo forms a search party with his friends to find April. He, in the beginning phase of his mission encounters with Police official also. He behaves smartly here, he firms on his works but does a little compromise to avoid any tussle with him.
The primary suspect for the abduction is Jack, who over the course of events, got captured by the officials. He though challenges that the official would not be able to find April. He then put his demands. The officials were not ready to accept the demands directly (of course). Then Theo got a message that officials found something from the lake nearby. Watching it from the bird’s eye view Theo and his team considered it to be the dead body of April which was taken out of the lake!!
What will happen now? Who is the culprit? What happened actually and why? Theo is on the quest to know and the reader gets updated with him as well 🙂
The thriller lovers will surely love this book. And we are curious to go for the other books in the series for sure.
