Dead White Male

Point Crime: The Beat #5

by David Belbin

When 19-year-old Scott Travis is found battered to death, the police are baffled. Probationary police officer Clare Coppola delves deeper into Scott's past and a murky history emerges. Scott was a blackmailer. His victims included a medical student, a former prostitute and even a police officer. Which of them was desperate enough to kill to keep their secret hidden? Could it be somebody very close to home?

A fast paced mystery from the author of the best selling Bone and Cane series. Belbin takes the reader deep into the lives of a group of young police officers finding their feet in the inner city.

Genres: Crime, Young Adult

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1996

About the author

Belbin's work is known for breaking boundaries and dealing responsibly with difficult social issues that affect teenagers. He first attained success with a number of books for Scholastic's Point Crime series.

Reviews

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars
* Scott Travis is found beaten to death by some prostitutes, behind a house. They ID him, then try to work out why he was murdered. He was blackmailing people, but they all seem to have alibis. They wonder whether it was because he was gay, or because he was blackmailing someone, but seem to hit a dead end. Eventually, they find Scott's video camera which has a recording of his murder. His old foster-father killed him because he tried to blackmail him. The foster-father had sexually abused him every night for 3 months, and Scott threatened to tell, so he killed him by beating him to death with a rolling pin.
* Neil is happy with Melanie, but he's not sure about meeting her parents.
* Ruth knows that Ben is still seeing Charlene and she's not happy about it. She confronts Charlene and tells her that she won't share Ben, and that either Charlene needs to back off or she will. Charlene tells her that she can have him.
* Clare gets asked out by Paul Grace and she accepts because she thinks he's gay. He's not gay though, and he kisses her. Clare is a little confused, but she realises she does like him, and she asks him out again.
* Gary comes out to Clare as gay which surprises her. He also admits that he was the policeman who was being blackmailed, and that he refused to pay.

[Marie-Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I enjoyed reading it.