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Officer Laura Camp and Officer Dirk work together at a juvenile detention center in Florida. Most of the juveniles in their care are from warring rival gangs. This bunch includes the up-and-coming boxer and gang member Jack “the Mack” Stubins. Jack is currently detained for grand theft. He is hoping to make bail before his championship fight on the upcoming Friday. However, all plans are put on hold, and the detention center is put on lockdown when vultures begin behaving in strange and horrific ways, attacking and killing people. The guards soon learn that Jack isn’t a terrible kid; he just has a terrible father and has made poor decisions. They decide to help him get to the boxing championship. However, after Jack wins the championship, he and the guards are attacked by armed men heading back to the detention center. Jack’s father, also incarcerated and head of the gang, has planned an escape to Mexico for both him and Jack. Part of that plan includes killing the officers so there won’t be witnesses. Jack, though, has decided he wants a different life than his father’s. He defends the officers and eventually goes back to the detention center with them. However, vultures are gathering, and when the rival gang members arrive to free their own and kill Jack, the deadly vultures see an opportunity to enter the facility.
Campanelli’s interesting thriller is an entertaining read. The relation to Hitchcock’s classic film, The Birds, is readily apparent. However, two other comparisons really help convey the tone of the work. First, the character of Jack is very similar to that of the juvenile offenders in S.E. Hinton’s classic, The Outsiders. Like the boys in that book who are in trouble with the law but have hearts of gold, so too does Jack. Although Officer Camp is the main character, it is the character of Jack that most readers will be drawn to and root for. Additionally, the reader may find some tonal connections between this and Stephen King’s The Green Mile. What connects these is the detention setting and the fact that both authors invest their characters with expansive and rounded personalities. Campanelli shows her skills as a veteran writer by writing well-rounded and empathetic characters.
Overall, Campanelli’s work is entertaining and enjoyable to read. Her style and sentence structure are easy to follow and keep the novel well-paced. However, some additional editing would have enhanced the narrative’s overall effectiveness. For example, where this book occasionally falters is with its inconsistencies in some of the details and established behaviors as well as the order of events, as in the case when the characters jump in the van and leave at the close of Chapter 28 only to be running to the vehicle when Chapter 29 opens. However, most readers will undoubtedly overlook these things due to the author’s extremely tight control of pacing and character. In the end, this is a fun read with lots of exciting encounters and characters the readers will care about and applaud.