Shadows of Doubt

A Kahale and Claude Mystery, Book 2

De: Timothy R. Baldwin

Narrado por: Garrett Kiesel, Brittany Goodwin

A new year. A new mystery.

It's the start of a new school year and a budding romance for Marcus and Alissa. However, everything is threatened when a sudden lack of funds puts all school sports on hold. To make matters worse, Marcus' father, the school's athletic director, is suddenly replaced by the arrogant, washed-up star athlete Mr. Dunbar.

Marcus and Alissa are forced to play detective once again and get to the bottom of these strange events. Will they be prepared to risk reputation, and even their safety, to solve this mystery?

With a bonus novella, A Bazaar Christmas. A Christmas caper has Marcus and Alissa on the trail of a new mystery. The stakes are high for the future of the annual Christmas Bazaar when a big-ticket auction item goes missing. Anxious for another mystery, Marcus and Alissa set off to recover the lost item and catch a suspect before the close of the night.

©2020 Timothy R. Baldwin (P)2021 Timothy R. Baldwin

Enjoyed this teenage detective story

I really enjoyed this teenage detective story. A great set of characters. I did not listen to book one but feel as though this story stood by itself.

The narration was great. I enjoyed both narrates. The contrast in voices made the story even better to hear.

I was given this book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Satisfying Mystery!

When funds go missing at the school, our heroes from Camp Lenape, Marcus, Alissa, Janice, and Nate decide they’re going to investigate. Things only escalate when Marcus’ father loses his job to be replaced by a washed-up athlete. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Alissa and Marcus will have to dive in headfirst at the risk of not only their reputation, but possibly their safety as well.

While starting a new year at school can be exciting, it can also be stressful. I love the way that Baldwin escalated that fact by writing an in-school mystery for the main characters to solve. The friendships and budding romance all felt very real for middle schoolers, and it made the characters easy to relate to. Plenty of character development goes on with all the characters, and I thought the ending of the story was particularly satisfying.

Both the narrators did a good job on bringing the characters to life!

This book was given to me for free at my request, and I provided this voluntary review.

Step Aside Hardy Boys for Marcus and Alissa

It’s really difficult to write an authentic mystery featuring teenaged detectives, but you wouldn’t know it from reading Timothy R. Baldwin’s new novel, Shadows of Doubt. In the tradition of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, his four heroes catch the scent of some wrongdoing at their high school and nothing will stop them from ferreting out the truth and catching the criminals. The fact that at the same time they are acting to save the job of one of their fathers just adds urgency and helps us empathize even more with the teens.

The camaraderie and touch of romance in the group felt real, but what I really liked was that this did not devolve into a shoot-em-up style climax. Baldwin has thought through each step of the problem, and every element of both the teen-detectives’ investigation and their efforts to expose the truth felt credible to me. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Great mystery, great characters

Love the character interactions and the really enjoyed the story. Hoping for another book in the series soon!

"... if it weren't for you meddling kids."

Parents- PG13 - fine for middle school and up There is drinking in this book and dealing with alcoholism
Language- PG, minor and texting conversations WTF
Violence- None
Sexual Content- kissing, nothing major, pressure from friends about not kissing yet, parents asking if they've.... and recommending they wait for marriage, teens talking about awkward sex talks with parents

I didn't read the first book but I was never lost in the story, so while probably better in order it can be read on it's own. This is a story about four high schoolers that are trying to figure out a mystery going on in their high school. The schools going through budget cuts but things aren't adding up. It involves Marcus's dad and something odd in the school, his dad starts drinking and acting strange. The teens all ban together to try to figure out what's going on. It's a great YA read that will appeal to high schoolers on up, it was a fun read with the feel of the Scooby Do mysteries minus the dog!

Narrator- The two narrators work well together - one chapter read by each depending on who's perspective it's in. They both have good differentiation between characters and are fun to listen to. I liked it better at 1.15x speed.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Interesting, missing nuance of race

"Shadows of Doubt: A Kahale and Claude Mystery Book 2" (2020, 2021) is a somewhat interesting second novel in a series about high school juniors Marcus and Alissa. The pair attempt to solve a mystery about missing school funds while negotiating their own budding romance. Alissa is a black girl in what appears to be a predominantly white town but there is no mention of such in anyone’s mind, including hers. Also, the narrator reading her part is Caucasian; problematic for me. An A for effort, C+ for execution. At my request, I was given this free audiobook and have voluntarily left this review.

Kelvin L. Reed
Author of "Guilt by Association"