BOY STILL MISSING

This debut novel spirals from one crisis to another--adultery, abortion, adoption, abduction, even a long lost half-brother (maybe)--all as its 15-year-old protagonist, Dominick Pindle, piles one bad decision after another on his already tall stack of previous mistakes. Sometimes smart-ass, more often confused boy, he wants desperately to have sex with, or at least kiss, his alcoholic father's pregnant mistress, who toys with him and gets him to steal money from his mother, herself with child by the local sheriff. This fodder is over the top, almost out of control. Scott Shina handles the first-person narration well, coping with the many plot twists, helping listeners with Dominick's annoying angst, and capturing the many weirdos he encounters. Shina is, however, given to inexplicable pauses in the middle of conversations. Perhaps they, too, are pregnant. T.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]