Published: Dec. 15, 2010
Words: 59,652 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781458189271

Short description

After the death of her adopted mother, Sylvia develops an insatiable desire to find her birth mother. She becomes a teenage gang member trapped in a life style of violence and hopelessness. Rick Podowski helps Sylvia through writing poetry and eventually Sylvia is able to leave the gang. She finds her birth mother and becomes an unwilling participant in a plot by her mother's two stepsons.

Extended description

Sylvia Medina, a student at Central High joins a teenage gang after her adopted mother's death and is trapped in a life style of violence and hopelessness. Can the school's Literary Club and an image on the computer of her birth mother provide the hope necessary for Sylvia to survive?

Antonio Medina, after his wife's death from cancer tries everything to get Sylvia back on track. However, nothing helps until Rick Podowski and Leti Rios, advisors to the high school Literary Club, get Sylvia involved. Sylvia reluctantly shares some of her poems. Then, as Sylvia becomes more committed, she begins to change and becomes in touch with her feelings.

As Sylvia develops her ties to the Literary Club, she gets more intrigued by the picture of her birth mother and tries to find her. She learns that her mother lives in New York and when members of the Literary Club go to Columbia University to attend a conference and receive an award for their magazine, Sylvia goes along. Instead of going to t.. (Read more) Sylvia Medina, a student at Central High joins a teenage gang after her adopted mother's death and is trapped in a life style of violence and hopelessness. Can the school's Literary Club and an image on the computer of her birth mother provide the hope necessary for Sylvia to survive?

Antonio Medina, after his wife's death from cancer tries everything to get Sylvia back on track. However, nothing helps until Rick Podowski and Leti Rios, advisors to the high school Literary Club, get Sylvia involved. Sylvia reluctantly shares some of her poems. Then, as Sylvia becomes more committed, she begins to change and becomes in touch with her feelings.

As Sylvia develops her ties to the Literary Club, she gets more intrigued by the picture of her birth mother and tries to find her. She learns that her mother lives in New York and when members of the Literary Club go to Columbia University to attend a conference and receive an award for their magazine, Sylvia goes along. Instead of going to the conference, she visits her mother.

She finds out that her mother married a very rich man, and she has two stepsons. The stepfather is dead, and the two sons along with her lawyer are trying to obtain her farm and include it as part of a land trust being used as a means to launder money for the mob. Murder, kidnapping, money laundering, and mob activities are included in this novel.
(Less)

Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages. For more information, see the Support FAQ.

Tags

mystery, amateur detectives, adoption, food and wine mystery

Available ebook reading formats

Single purchase gains access to all formats. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.

Format	Full Book	Sample First 20%
Online Reading (HTML, good for sampling in web browser)	Buy	View sample
Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps)	Buy	Download sample
Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others)	Buy	Download sample
PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing)	Buy	No sample available
RTF (readable on most word processors)	Buy	No sample available
LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub)	Buy	Download sample
Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices)	Buy	Download sample
Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting)	Buy	No sample available
Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)	Buy	No sample available

Videos

Global eBook Award
The Winning Certificate won the 2011 Global eBook award in the amateur sleuth category.

Reviews

Log-in to write a Review   Log-in to add a Video Review

Review by: Sara Marie Hogg on Aug. 04, 2011 :
This reader loves Mr. Miller's series of school campus who-done-its, solved by Rick Podowski and the Hefty Trio. The way he weaves the recipes and wine into the stories is sheer genius. Rick and the Hefty Trio love to chow down and one gets hungry while reading about their delicious snacks--so nice to actually have the real and time-honored, tested recipes contributed by "Rick" and "his friends." This book was particularly poignant and I shed a few real tears toward the end of the story--Sara Marie Hogg, author of Blade Chatter and Catho Darlington.
(reviewed the day of purchase)

Reason for report:
— Select a reason — Book is or contains spam Book infringes copyright Same content is published elsewhere with different author (for ex., by private-label rights) Duplicate Incomplete work (such as sample or serial) Should be marked adults-only Category is inappropriate Poorly formatted Nudity or other inappropriate content on cover Nudity or other inappropriate visual content in book Inappropriate erotica content Cover image is improper Content is inappropriate Other violation of Terms of Service Other reason not shown above.

Additional details: