About.com Rating

Jex Malone is a detective story that reads something like a contemporary Nancy Drew. And though the main character is not exactly a great role model, there is no mature content (either sex or violence), making this a title parents should feel comfortable giving to even young teens or tweens who want a quick read about solving a cold case.

Publication Information

• Full Title:Jex Malone
• Authors: C.L. Gaber and V.C. Stanley

• Publisher: Merit Press
• Publication Date: June 2014
• ISBN: 9781440570513 (hardcover), 9781440570520 (ebook)

Detective Malone

Jessica Malone, aka Jex (a childhood nickname given to her by her father) has managed to find an excuse every year for why she shouldn't have to spend the summer in Nevada with her father like her parents' divorce agreement says she should. She's spent so little time with her dad, the hotshot Detective John Malone, that she doesn't feel like he's a real parent at all. But this summer, her mother insists Jex go, and even takes her to a judge to explain why she has to uphold an agreement made so many years ago.

At first, Jex finds herself bored out of her mind in Nevada. Her dad still has work, and he seems to be there all the time. But then she meets three other neighborhood teens, and somehow the topic of an old missing persons (or possibly homicide) case comes up. Many years ago a teen girl disappeared from a house just around the corner and was never found. It was the case that obsessed Jex's dad so much it lead to her parents' divorce.

So of course the girls decide they have to solve it.

Not Exactly Nancy Drew

As a teen, I enjoyed the occasional Nancy Drew novel, and as an adult I mix some mystery novels in with the other genres I love, so I had high hopes for Jex Malone. The idea of an up-to-date girl detective (launching a series, maybe?) is really appealing, and I have a fondness for irreverent, quirky lead characters. And there are some really great elements in this book. Unfortunately, they just didn't add up to as much as I'd hoped.

Maybe it had something to do with the shared writing duties between the two writers, but I found the style somewhat hard to get into. Not hard to read, mind you -- in fact, sometimes it seemed too simple. Instead it felt superficial, like listening to someone talking at high speed without really saying much. I never really felt like I was in the story, if that makes any sense. Instead, I always felt like I was skimming the words, watching the action from a detached point of view that never let me connect very deeply.

Caricatures

Near the end of the book, there's a caricature artist drawing portraits for tourists, and that's how a lot of the characters felt -- like caricatures. To be fair, the book is written from Jex's point of view, so the readers sees everyone through her eyes. One should expect her to slot people into her own categories and not always see that they have depth. But it's very difficult to connect with people who don't feel real, and I think that's one of the issues I had with not being able to immerse myself in the story.

Even Jex herself didn't really feel real. A lot of the time I felt like I was reading a adult's idea of what teens are like, rather than a fleshed-out person. Of course, any book written by adults about teens is an adult's point of view of what teens are like, but it shouldn't feel that way if the characters are well done.

More Mystery

Still, for all that I didn't connect with Jex Malone, I do feel it was a good effort. Mystery novels aimed at adults and at younger readers are in good supply, but there don't' seem to be as many written for teens, so this one at least starts to fill a gap. And it's not a bad read by any means. For fans of detective TV and those wishing Nancy Drew was a bit more modern, this would be a good choice for a quick summer read. I'll be curious to see if it develops into a series.