Who Killed Jimmy Valentine? by Michael Williams

I picked this one up, knowing that many schools study this book around grades 8 or 9. I was curious.

Taxi violence is slowly destroying lives in Cape Town. One morning, the body of a young musical prodigy is found, shot in the chest, on top of a Valentine taxi. It is up to new Detective Jake Mulligan, to get to the bottom of it. Only, can he? He seems to already have botched his first case.

While there are some great things about reading books written at home: the familiar culture, the familiar settings, the language, that is pretty much where my interest waned. There was nothing special about this story. It was as run-of-the-mill as it gets.

Granted, I liked that, unlike the way it seems in cop dramas and regular crime books, these cops seemed busy. Well, considering the crime rate here, that seemed a lot more feasible. I liked the mixed races on the police force, and I liked how some of the different languages in this country were laced throughout the dialogue - just as it is done here at home.

But, to be honest, it was just an OK book. The writing was nothing special; the plot, while enjoying a few twists and turns was nothing out of the ordinary. I don't think I will be selecting this one to teach.

I gave this 2 stars. There wasn't anything wrong about it. It was just OK.