McClintock, Norah. Close To The Heel. (Seven the Series)

McClintock, Norah.  Close To The Heel. (Seven the Series)  Orca  257p  $9.95  978-1-55469-950-6  2012      ms/hs   VG    Mystery/Detective

Close to the Heel is the fifth installment in the Seven series, but readers will not have to read the previous volumes to enjoy this story.  The series, written by seven different authors, can be read in any order and follows the adventures of seven cousins who each must complete a task assigned to them by their grandfather via his videotaped will.

Rennie arrives in Iceland to carry out the task given to him by his Grandpa McLean, the  patriarch whose strong personality holds the series together even after his death.  Rennie has a lot to prove -- to himself, to his father, and to others -- and Iceland’s uncompromising, bleak setting is the perfect scene for a dark mystery and a man-against-the-elements coming-of-age novel.  Rennie’s task is to return some journals to the site of a plane crash that his grandfather survived decades ago in Iceland.  Instead, Rennie is caught up in a murder mystery.  Readers are immediately propelled into an action-driven plot with an intriguing back story.  An unexpected plot twist will keep readers rapidly turning pages to the very end.

Iceland–Fiction, Mysteries-Fiction                  --Hilary Welliver