Very good book, with alittle bit of everything

books:


	• Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery (Final Four Mysteries) John Feinstein Yearling, 2006 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great book for young sports fans!

This is a highly enjoyable mystery set at the NCAA Final Four. The two heroes are a 13 year old girl and a 13 year old boy who have won a writing contest and have press passes to the Final Four. They are likeable, realistic characters and the mystery they solve is surprisingly plausible. My 11 year old son loved this book.

Great Atmosphere, Absurd Plot

John Feinstein is a great writer and I have always enjoyed his commentary on the radio. The strength of this book is the background details. If you want to know what it is like to be at the final four, you will enjoy all the inside information about the fans, the players, the coaches, the sports writers and television commentators. As a mystery, it starts unlikely and ends preposterous. A realistic story of how two teenage reporters uncover a scandal at the final four would probably be too tedious to interest the age level this book is intended for. The more I read the more I felt the plot was borrowed from the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. I kept thinking the plot had a lot to owe to Gene Autry, didn't he usually have a kid hanging around to solve the mystery and then need saving? And the character names! Does Susan Carol sound like a girl who is around in 2000's, even if she does come from the South? The readers may come for the atmosphere, but the plot won't lure them to the final pages.

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Last Shot

Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery
Two teenage sports reporters win a contest with the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and get to go to the Final Four. They experience blackmail and basketball first hand in this book. Find of if the realistic fiction basketball novel is a slam dunk or an air ball.
When eighth graders Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson win the writing contest the pair has won a trip to the Final Four in New Orleans and a chance to see what it takes to cover the event as working journalists. They each get an extra ticket for which they both decide to bring their dads. Once they get there they also get media pass credentials to be able to watch all the practices, press conferences, and games to be able to write a story each day.
So as if the Final Four isn't crazy enough they are walking around and overhear a kid named Chip Graber who is being blackmailed and suppose to throw the championship game. The two kids try to tell people but they don't take them very seriously, so they put their heads together and try to figure out what's going on.
This book is very fast-paced read which helps you keep wanting to read and more enjoyable to read about this tension and competitive packed book between the two kids Stevie and Susan Carol. Stevie is short kid from the East Coast who absolutely hates Duke, while Susan Carol is a tall girl from the South who loves Duke. Stevie thinks he knows more about college hoops than Susan Carol and hates that he is spending all his time with a Duke fan. They each get over it and put their differences aside and try to solve this blackmail mystery. In the end they end up with a strong friendship and the two opposites come together.
Last Shot is a great story because it combines mystery and an inside look on how things work in the Final Four, what more could you ask for. The author, John Feinstein, is a sports reporter who has covered the tournament several times and he can show you the great behind-the-scenes details of the Final Four. He also makes you feel how tense it can be to be a kid playing in the game. He is also a sportswriter and commentator. He writes for the Washington post and is a guest commentator for National Public Radio, and also commentates for the college football team NAVY. He is also a contributor to Tony Kornheiser Show and Jim Rome Show. He wrote for The Chronicle while he went to school at Duke University. He has written twenty-three books and his most recent is the Last Shot. So if you love college basketball and mystery you will love the Last Shot.

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Very good book, with alittle bit of everything

I really liked this book because it was about friendship, romance, sports, adventure and suspense. The characters are interesting and the plot was very creative and enjoyable. Yet I didnt like some points of the story that were corny, usually about the kids liking each other. The idea of a famous basketball player being helped by these kids was also hard to buy into. Yet for someone who doesnt like basketball, I really enjoyed the book.
Suggested age: 10-15
Reading Level- 6-7th grade

More of a leisure book then anything.

Give it a try

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Nonstop action

Last Shot Knopf, 2005, 251 p.p., $16.95
John Feinstein 0-375-83168-1

Steven Thomas is living a dream. After winning a writing contest, he is in New Orleans as a reporter covering the Final Four. But, the dream takes a turn when Steven and fellow winner Susan Carol overhear a warning to MSU's star point guard to lose the championship game, or else. As Steven and Susan Carol start to uncover the mystery, the less real answers they get.
Last Shot by John Feinstein is a sports mystery thriller. The page-turner is best for ages eight to fourteen. It is told in third person. The book wil make you begging for more. Stevie and Susan Carol will make you laugh out loud with their jokes and lies and beg for mercy with what they get themselves into.
If you have read and liked Matt Christipher books, and also like mysteries, you will thouroughly enjoy this. I reccomend this for anyone who would like to both laugh and be scared out of their wits all in two-hundred fifty-one pages of nonstop action.

-Townes Bouchard-Dean

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Steven Thomas is one of two lucky winners of the U.S. Basketball Writer?s Association?s contest for aspiring journalists. His prize? A trip to New Orleans and a coveted press pass for the Final Four. It?s a basketball junkie?s dream come true!
But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court. Steven and his fellow winner, Susan Carol Anderson, are nosing around the Superdome and overhear what sounds like a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of MSU?s star players . . . and why.

Praise for John Feinstein:
?The best writer of sports books in America today.??The Boston Globe

?Feinstein?s beat, it turns out, isn?t sports; it?s human nature.??People on A March to Madness

?A basketball junkie?s nirvana.??Sports Illustrated on A March to Madness

?One of the best sportswriters alive!??Larry King, USA Today on A Good Walk Spoiled

From the Hardcover edition.

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