I am still enjoying these. During the first part of this youth retreat, it sounded pretty familiar, pretty typical. I would've considered a different motive for the missing teen, Zac. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to my mind was an attempted suicide... There just seem to be more of those than ~with the teens that I've volunteered with.
I was glad that one of the teens, Brenda, returned in this book. I enjoyed her character, and she seemed to grow in this book as well.
A long time ago, in a church far away (or maybe not quite), after a self-defense class, I very nearly punched a youth intern who jumped out at me as a prank, too. Fortunately, I noticed in time who it was just before my fist would've impacted him and I was able to take the steam out of it. So, I could relate to Jeremiah on that one. I believe one of my kids has "accidentally" punched someone who popped up at one of those haunted-house-like venues, too. She did apologize to him. I thought it was funny.
Jeremiah's hiking trip through the woods with the teens was exciting and completely different from the rest of the series thus far. It reminded me some of "My Hands Came Away Red," about teen missionaries who had to cross a suddenly-war-torn country to get to their embassy. I would recommend that book to those who enjoyed this one.
We already knew that Jeremiah wasn't a "usual" rabbi in a multitude of ways, and this book continued that theme.
They're not truly cozy mysteries. Some of it is more gory than would be in a cozy, and some of the main characters do un-cozy-like protagonist things. Darts come to mind, and possibly unnecessary murders.
I didn't like the character arcs for both the police officers, Mark and Paul. As a protagonist, Cindy came across as wacko in her defiance towards the police officers, particularly Mark, "You're gonna have to shoot me ..." What? She's supposed to be the good character. And confronting someone she thinks is guilty of murder?!
Unfortunately, I knew right away whodunit, and so that part wasn't really much of a mystery. There weren't enough suspects.
Yes, some of it was unrealistic, particularly the end of the part about the mountain lion. I have a hard time believing that 1) both front feet were affected, and that 2) that distance of a fall could do what it did.
But sometimes the unlikely is what makes a book engrossing.
It actually felt cruel to me for Cindy to thank her brother because of the way that he'd unknowingly helped her - even though she didn't tell him how. Just that whole scenario doesn't feel right. Since this is a murder mystery, there is a lot of cruelty in this book for me to be fixated on just that one point, but Cindy's usually the protagonist.
Favorite quotes:
"I can't believe these are the teenagers our congregations are always moaning about." I agree. Most of the teens that I've known are very good characters and they can behave well.
"Not afraid to be a girl, but smart and analytical as well." What's that word "but" doing in there? Those aren't opposite or contradictory ideas - being a girl and being smart and analytical. I know many analytical girls and women in engineering, math, sciences, and medicine.