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Leepike Ridge

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LEEPIKE RIDGE
By N. D. Wilson
Random House, 2007. 224pp. Juvenile Fiction.

Leepike Ridge is a bit unusual these days in that it is an adventure book that doesn't involve fantasy, magic, or bonding with one's formerly estranged relatives. Tom Hammond lives in a house chained to a rocky cliff with his mother who is about to marry a dweeby schoolteacher (Tom's father died some years earlier). Upset about his mother's relationship with Mr. Veatch, Tom floats down the stream at the bottom of the cliff on the foam from a packing box, and gets sucked into an underground cavern with no apparent way out. There he finds dead bodies, a stranger from his own past, the possibility of a great treasure, and danger. Characters with mythological names people this adventure novel whose author acknowledges influences from Mark Twain and Homer. Though Wilson's first book has some rough edges and things that don't make sense, it is still compelling reading, especially for youngsters.
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