Tyrant Of The Badlands

“Although I don’t get to spend much time around your family, it doesn’t mean I don’t care. From conversations with your parents, I know plenty about you and your brother. I got to thinking that it might be handy to have someone like you spend time in the trailer park. You watch for things and remember. 
“I’d be a spy,” I said. 
“Think of it more as an undercover agent. You already know your disguise.” 
“A rotten teenager.” 
“Badly rotten.”

Book: Tyrant of the Badlands (The Accidental Detectives Series #4) by Sigmund Brouwer, Chariot Victor Books, 1996

Genre: Adventure/Mystery

Target Audience: Boys 10-14

Subjects: Crime, Loss, Faith

Summary: Ricky has turned bad. Not just a little bad, but extremely bad. As in a disrespectful brat who throws a rock through is aunt’s window as soon as he first arrives to visit her. But it’s not real. He’s playing a role in hopes of finding some evidence to present to the police on the real bad guys. Convincing the bad guys you’re on their side is dangerous though. You show kindness to one person and they’ll be suspicious. So Ricky has to be extremely mean and rude to everyone he comes into contact with. And when the bad guys accept him, their first assignment for him is to burn down a trailer in his aunt’s trailer park. When his friends and brother show up things get even worse! It’s up to Ricky to fool the bad guys without actually doing anything illegal or dangerous.

Notes: This book is pure action. There is some discussion about faith between Ricky and his grandfather who is hurting at the loss of his wife. But most of the book is fast paced action. This is the 7^th in the Accidental Detectives series, a series of books about Ricky Kidd, a young boy who often stumbles into mysteries and has to deal with a younger brother that drives him nuts.

Recommendation Scale: 3/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Romans 5:1-5 – Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.