A new young adult novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Clutch!
"Liam Reimold loves soccer, but in this simmering mystery he's also his own kind of wrestler: he struggles to reconcile the past and present, right and wrong, life and death. We're by Liam's side from start to finish as Heather Camlot artfully reveals how a young boy's vulnerability is his strength, and we quietly rejoice when his warring emotions find an enduring peace. Like the memories at the heart of this loving family portrait, Camlot's fine writing lingers." --Emil Sher, screenwriter, playwright, and author of Young Man With Camera
Twelve-year-old Liam finds a dead body along the shore of his grandfather's cottage. He can't undo what he's seen and can't focus on anything else. Liam believes there is more to the girl's story than her "accidental death" and decides to investigate.
Only when Liam visits his grandfather, living in palliative care, do things begin to change. As they watch Germany's 2014 World Cup soccer games together, his grandfather, a German World War II veteran, reveals stories about his past -- stories a Jewish North American kid doesn't want to hear. Angry and overwhelmed, Liam is swept up in a history that may just help him solve the girl's death -- and make sense of his own world again.
This book is at once an exciting murder-mystery and a coming-of-age story of a kid who must come to terms with the stark realities of a family who fought... on the other side.