Norah McClintock presents...

The Chloe & Levesque series

The Third Degree

Chloe, Brynn and Phoebe are half-sisters who can never agree on anything — except that they want to go to the spring dance, and that their mother seems to be head-over-heels in love with what could be husband number four: a homicide detective named Louis Levesque. The problem is that Levesque is investigating a case, and one clue from the crime scene could mean big trouble for one of the sisters.

Scholastic Canada Ltd.
ISBN 0-439-95761-3 PBK
228 pages
Ages 12+
4 3/16" x 6 ¾"

Excerpt

He kept waving the spoon around, and one swipe just about caught Den on the end of the nose. Den reached out and grabbed it and tried to wrench it away from the old man, but the man held on tight. Den looked surprised that the spoon hadn’t just come away in his hand. He pulled a lot harder, but the old man not only held on, he shook Den loose. When Den cursed at him, the old man whacked him over the head with the spoon. Den yelped in pain and anger. Before anyone could stop him, he lashed out and punched the old man.

Chloe had never seen a real live person hit another real live person that hard. She’d always thought those sounds you heard in the movies were just made up. Now she knew it for sure. The real sound of one person hitting another person was much worse than anything she had ever seen in the movies.

The blow sent the old man reeling. Den still looked mad when he turned to them and said, “Let’s get out of here.” It was the first intelligent thing Den had said since Chloe had known him. She headed for the door. Behind her she heard Shadd yell, “Watch out!”

She turned around just in time to see Shadd lunge across the counter at the old man, who was coming forward waving the spoon menacingly over his head. Shadd shoved hard with both hands, and the old man staggered backward and then fell. There was a sickening crack when the back of his head hit and then bounced off the corner of a grill stove.

“Geez,” Chloe said. She went close enough to the counter to look over and see the old man sprawled on the floor. “Maybe you killed him.”