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Asbury High and the Kidnapper's Drive
by Kelly Brady Channick
Series: Asbury High YA Cozy Mystery Series #4
Series Rating:
Published by Purple Milk Publishing on February 6, 2021
Genres: YA Mystery
Pages: 383
Format: Kindle
Source: Great Escapes Book Tours
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Also in this series: Asbury High and the Thief's Gamble, Asbury High and the Parcels of Poison, Asbury High and the MisTaken Identities, Asbury High and the Arson Avenger, Asbury High and the Captivating Cruise
On a quiet summer night, in the peaceful seaside town of Asbury, a local girl is kidnapped from her home.
That very same day, a car thief is chased through an empty car lot, narrowly escaping from their teenage pursuer.
Can the two be connected?
Once again, it’s up to Asbury’s favorite, fearless foursome to find out.
Carly, Maddie, Pilot, and Cornelious enter the summer before their junior year ready for normalcy. After a few weeks of calm, it seems that Carly may finally have the drama-free summer of her dreams—other than her boyfriend returning from his two-week vacation hotter than ever, drawing interest from her peers.
Just as Asbury is lulled into a sense of serenity, tragedy strikes when a local six-year-old is kidnapped from her home…with no sign of a break-in, no ransom, and no reason. While the town is desperate to find the missing girl, car parts from Maddie’s father’s shop suddenly go missing, and the gang begins to wonder if the two are connected. With little faith in law enforcement and prodding from Maddie’s younger siblings, the gang finds themselves at the center of the investigation.
Unfortunately, solving both cases isn’t so easy, as the gang must work around the continually growing criminal enterprise of the Pitbulls, the constant construction occurring around town from Governor Gibbz’s Grant, as well as their changing feelings towards each other. When Maddie and Cornelious begin to sense their friendship might be more than what they realize, jealousies arise as the teens garner attention from others.
With all these distractions, can the foursome save the missing girl and figure out who is stealing from Petrozza Auto?
Asbury High and the Kidnapper’s Drive is the fourth book in a thrilling young adult cozy mystery series, that fans of Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Scooby-Doo will love.
Asbury High and the Kidnapper’s Drive by Kelly Brady Channick is about this group of teenagers looking into two different crimes that are happening before their junior year of high school.
Will Maddie, Pilot, Cornelius, and Carly have a great summer while solving two crimes?
The Gang
Maddie, Cornelius, Pilot, and Carly finished up their sophomore year and looked forward to a relaxing summer vacation. Well, as relaxing as one can be when you are these four teenage detectives. A lot happens this summer. Maddie starts dating and maybe figuring out some things between her and Cornelius. Pilot gets better looking and is still in love with Carly. Carly is, of course, still in love with Pilot and is always the one that comes up with something that the others never thought about, especially for cases. Cornelius is figuring out his feelings for Maddie while also not knowing about her starting to date anyone. These four are definitely fun to read about as they remind me of the Scooby-Doo gang, Nancy Drew, and of course, the Hardy Boys. I love seeing how they’ve grown from the freshmen that we saw in the first book to these confident sixteen-year-olds trying to enjoy as much time as they have left together.
The Mystery
Of course, the mysteries are what brings us to these four teenage sleuths. Since the start of the summer and even before then, Maddie’s dad kept having parts stolen from his shop. This summer, though, it just keeps on happening and getting worse each time. On the Fourth of July, they had a little girl get kidnapped from her home. So, the Asbury Police Department tried to get the little girl back to her parents from that point on. Everyone thought that this foursome would be able to do it pretty fast, but they had no clue even for them. I had no clue who did it, but as we got closer to the end, I remembered something, and it all clicked on the missing kid but not about the missing pieces from a car repair place. It’s a great mystery that kept me guessing to the end.
Five Stars
Asbury High and the Kidnapper’s Drive by Kelly Brady Channick is another well-written book that just had me guessing from the beginning. I love reading about Maddie, Cornelius, Pilot, and Carly’s latest adventures, and I can’t wait for the next book. The mysteries that Ms. Channick does for each new installment get better every time. The one thing that I love about this series that reminds me of Scooby-Doo, Nancy Drew, and even the Hardy Boys is that it makes you think with the sleuths and trying to remember all the clues that get handed to you. Along with piecing them together to come up with something plausible, especially for a whodunit. I love books, or in the case of Scooby-Doo, the first series of it, that takes a teenage sleuth or sleuths and have them solve a case while also dealing with their own problems. Like going to school, practice, or just for a run to try to clear the cobwebs. This is especially true if it helps kids put on their thinking caps to figure it out with the sleuths instead of just looking at their cell phones all the time.
On that note, I’m giving Asbury High, and the Kidnapper’s Drive by Kelly Brady Channick FIVE stars for a rating, and I’m recommending it to anyone out there that likes to read about some teenage sleuths.
Other Books in Series
This series is available on Kindle Unlimited.
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About Kelly Brady Channick
For as long as she could remember, Kelly Brady Channick loved making up stories and leaving her listeners/readers on the edge of their seats.
Perhaps that’s why she always managed to talk herself out of trouble…
After graduating from NJ’s own Ocean City High School, Kelly accepted a basketball scholarship to Holy Family University, in Philadelphia. As a lifelong athlete, Kelly understands the importance of teamwork and overcoming adversity, something she hopes translates into her books.
Before writing page-turners, she taught first, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade — like a dessert menu, she simply had to test them all out. But her favorite job is the one she’s now doing full time: writing. Kelly loves to craft whodunit mysteries, leading readers through various twists and turns filled with red-herrings, hidden clues, and more peculiar characters than a reality show.
Kelly lives in South Jersey with her handsome husband, energetic baby boy, two cookie-stealing dogs, and an awfully smart cat.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2021 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
- 2021 Cloak & Dagger
- 2021 Cozy Mystery Reading Challenge on Facebook
- 2021 Craving the Cozies
- 2021 Cruisin’ thru the Cozies
- 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge
- 2021 New Release Reading Challenge
- 2021 Six Shooter Reading Challenge
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