In Desert Crossing by Elise Broach, 14-year-old Lucy Martinez, her 18-year-old brother Jamie, and Jamie’s friend, Kit are traveling from Kansas to Phoenix to spend their vacation with Lucy and Jamie’s father.
While driving through a blinding desert rainstorm, Jamie hits something in the road.
Only an animal, they think.
When they backtrack to find it, they find a dead girl on the side of the road. She looks about their age. The nearest house belongs to Beth, a middle-aged reclusive artist who calls the sheriff and lets Lucy and Kit stay at her house while Jamie, the driver is taken into custody.
The sheriff’s department investigates and learns that the girl was dead before being placed on the road. All three are free to go on but Lucy is determined to find out what happened to the girl. She demands that Kit help find out.
From this point, the plot becomes somewhat improbable and filled with convenient coincidences but you are so caught up in the story that you suspend your disbelief of the events.
The author starts out her book …
There are some kinds of trouble you never see coming, like those thunderstorms that start from nothing at all. One minute the sky is bright blue and distant. Then, all of a sudden, it’s dark and thick with clouds, pressing down right on top of you. The leaves turn silvery and twist in the wind, the air starts to hum, and the rain comes, so heavy and fast you can’t even see. You almost never make it to the house on time.
Recommended (7 out of 10)
Calvert Library Teens 