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    Acceleration
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    Acceleration
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    Acceleration
    Audiobook5 hours

    Acceleration

    Written by Graham McNamee

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    It's a hot, hot summer, and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority's Lost and Found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging lost things and sifting through accumulated junk. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan's just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book. It's a diary filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. And Duncan can't make himself stop reading.

    What would you do with a book like that? How far would you go to catch a madman?

    And what if time was running out. . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 12, 2005
    ISBN9780307207340
    Unavailable
    Acceleration

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    Reviews for Acceleration

    4/5

    213 ratings26 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Working in the Lost and Found of the TTC for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds a leather book, a diary filled with the secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. He can’t stop reading it and is determined to find the madman.Story narrated by Duncan. It is suspenseful as he puts himself in danger throughout the story. Title refers to his escape from the killer's home at the end of the book. This book reads like a real life murder mystery / detective story. It describes what life is like underground in the subway system. Reading the diary, Duncan could have turned it over to the police but instead chose to keep it to himself, and by pursuing the killer, he puts his own life in danger. Awards WINNER 2004 - ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant ReadersWINNER 2004 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
    • 2/5
      Acceleration starts with a great premise: a teenager takes a summer job at the transit authority lost and found department in Toronto. While working in the "stacks," he finds a lost diary. As he reads it, he realizes that it is the rantings of what is probably a serial killer. If this story had remained focused on the mystery of finding the serial killer, it could have been a really good story, but it gets mired in the personal life of the main character. Most of the story deals with Duncan and his relationship with his friends and family, which changed dramatically after an unsuccessful attempt to save a drowning girl in a pool during a previous summer. Now he sees his attempt to find the serial killer as an attempt at redemption. The book moves very slowly after the initial problem is introduced and doesn't really pick up again until near the end of the book. The ending is as unsatisfying as most of the rest of the story. To say the least, a very disappointing book.
    • 5/5
      Duncan's boring, summer job at the Lost & Found in Toronto's subway often leaves him time to pick up a not yet claimed book. One day while looking for something to read, he stumbles upon a diary. As Duncan begins to read it, he discovers that it is filled with serial killer type jottings. Out of concern for the safety of others, he takes it to the police who appear to be uninterested, so he proceeds to investigate on his own.What a great find! I picked this up months ago on a whim and loaded it onto my iPod. Although, if I were to do it all over again, I would read the hand-held version. The narrator, Scott Brick, who I absolutely love, made the teenagers sound older than they really were. On several occasions, I had to remind myself that they were teens. Other than that - the characters were true-to-life, the plot, while a little unconventional, piqued my curiosity and kept me listening, and the pace at which the book accelerated was executed with precision. Well done. (4.5/5)Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy
    • 4/5
      This book sort of meanders until about halfway through, the you just better hold on for the ride to they end.

      How do authors come up with such clever and captivating story ideas? Graham McNamee has a unique one with Acceleration.

      A teenager, Duncan, is working a summer job below the streets in the subway. He's in the lost and found department where massive amounts of stuff are stored waiting for owners to claim; sunglasses, hats, bowling balks, a leather bound book. The job is seriously boring, so Duncan one day picks up the leather bound journal and leafs through. This is no ordinary rendition of a persons thoughts. It is the intricate thoughts and plans of a madman who starts with the torture of small animals. When this is no longer fulfilling, he progresses to stalking women and planning their capture and torture. All of this is detailed in this book. But could it just be words on a paper? Duncan follows the notes in the journal which does lead him to a woman the writer is slowly following or stalking her unawares. Duncan realized, the man he has dubbed, Roach, is very close to carrying out his evil plan to take and torture this unsuspecting woman. Acceleration refers to serial killers who start off torturing animals then must accelerate to humans to fulfill their sick desires.

      Now what does a kid do with this kind of info? Will the cops take him seriously or blow him off for being a kid with an over active imagination! Whatever, Duncan has launched himself I into a deadly game.
    • 4/5
      It's the summer before senior year for high school student Duncan. He is miserable in the summer heat and working his boring job in the lost and found of the subway station in Toronto. After rummaging through "lost" books at this job, he finds a leather bound diary of a potentially dangerous man. He and his friend Vinny search for clues using the diary and together try and catch this Roach before he acts out his fantasy of killing someone. This was a pretty good book. Duncan is an interesting character trying to do the right thing. I felt this was very true to life and depicted well on what a sixteen year old boy would do if in this situation. It holds your attention throughout and I found myself hoping that he would catch Roach and hoping that he wouldn't get into trouble along the way. Great ending! ... had my heart pounding. It is a young adult book that I would recommend to any high schooler.
    • 5/5
      What a very awesome book. Would be a great movie
    • 4/5
      Acceleration is the short tale of Duncan, who lives in a low rent apartment block in Toronto called "The Jungle" and has secured, for the long hot summer, a job rooting through the lost and found objects of the Toronto transit authority. Among the assorted and unexpected detritus left behind on subways and city buses, Duncan uncovers the diary of a man who Duncan supposes is a serial killer, or at least about to become one.Faced with police that don't seem to care and a desire to atone for the last time he failed to be a hero, Duncan feels a responsibility to seek out the author of the morbid book. As the summer wears on, Duncan and his friend Vinny embark on an ill-advised quest to find the near-felon that has haunted Duncan's thoughts ever since he laid eyes on the book. In the end, of course, Duncan gets much more than he bargained for when he decided to take the law into his own hands.The first thought I had upon finishing Acceleration is that, in a world where a lot of YA seems to cater to a female audience, Acceleration is definitely a book that would hold a strong appeal for boys. It's a short, quick-reading mystery populated with well-written and believable male characters out to prove their worth in a world that doesn't promise much to them. For me, it required a bit more suspension of disbelief than I had to offer, but for its target audience, there is more than enough realism to satisfy.Acceleration is also a great book for all the Criminal Minds fans out there. McNamee, it seems, wrote an interesting mystery about profiling serial killers before profiling serial killers became big entertainment. Along with offering a fast-moving story, McNamee introduces the basics of criminal profiling in a way that is instructive without being boring. While Acceleration probably won't be in the running for my favorite book of the year, Duncan's world, for one summer at least, is vivid and dangerous and makes for quick, enjoyable reading that is still highly recommendable.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Over the summer Duncan gets a job working in the subways lost and found, and discovers a journal that seems to belong to a serial killer in training. Plagued by a traumatic experience that happened a year before, and having to cope with a less than stellar personal record, Duncan becomes obsessed with redeeming himself by finding the man who wrote the journal. The journal includes lists about three women that the writer has been stalking, including their descriptions and travel schedules, Duncan fears that if he doesn’t do something soon, one of them will die. Acceleration is an interesting and compelling read, livened up with sarcastic humour, and is the kind of story that keeps you wanting to know what happens next. I liked the language used to tell the story, which is told in the first person and helps to show us Duncan’s character, who is both complex, naive and completely believable. His friend’s characters also create an interesting layer to the story, although they are all typical teenage boys, Vinny has a disabled hand and Wayne has a criminal record. I also enjoyed the fact that this book is written by a Canadian author and the realism created having it set in the subway system of Toronto. It Won the 2004 Arthur Ellis Awards: Best Juvenile; 2004 Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Best Young Adult; 2007 Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers; and was a nominee for YRCA in 2006.
    • 4/5
      A great read, truly scary, and will appeal to boys, especially the kind who "don't like to read." Mature theme in a YA package.
    • 5/5
      Duncan is 17 and lives in the Jungle, a blue collar apartment complex in Toronto. He has had a run in with the law and now his father found him summer work in the lost & found department of the city's transit authority. He also is haunted by memories of not being able to save a young girl that drowned while he was swimming nearby. As Duncan works his menial job he is rummaging through lost items and comes across a plain journal. He begins to leaf through and notices some disturbing items about animal abuse. As he looks further he sees the author of the journal starting to talk about hunting women. Duncan is concerned and begins to enlist the help of his friends Wayne & Vinny to try and unravel the mystery and find this budding psycho. He tries to alert the police but they see him as a waste of their time so Duncan decides it is up to him to redeem himself and find this possible killer before it's too late. Using clues in the journal and the help of his friends Duncan gets deeper and deeper into this disturbing situation. Will the author of the journal really kill? Is Duncan too late? Can he atone for the mistakes of his past? A great, quick read that keeps you turning the pages.
    • 3/5
      guy book with fast-paced adventure peppered with sarcastic humor
    • 3/5
      Decent action/suspense mystery. I can see the appeal and I'll probably add it to my booktalks list, but it's not my favorite thing I've read (or listened to).
    • 4/5
      I liked this fast moving, sometimes edgy mystery. It is about a young teen who finds a diary of a killer wile working in the lost and found of the transit system. The police do not take him seriously so he sets out to find the man with his two friends. Not an action that I would recommend but it works for them.
    • 4/5
      I thought that it was a good book and not like any other out there. Also i thought it was a good length and never got boring.
    • 4/5
      Listened to - which added to the suspense (I couldn't jump ahead to see if it was safe). Ending missing some detail, but maybe that's more real life.
    • 4/5
      The novel, acceleration, encompasses how something as simple as a book can change what will happen tomorrow. In the beginning,Duncan, the protagonist struggles with a serial killers diary that Duncan has found at his work. Throughout the middle, Duncan feels like he needs to find him before he kills again.By the end he has learned how to stalk the stalker serial killer.
    • 3/5
      Duncan works in the subway Lost and Found. When he finds a diary/journal full of murderous thoughts and words, he decides to find this creep and try to stop him. Duncan also has his own ghosts -- the face and voice of a drowning girl he was unable to save.Good yarn -- boy main character. Canadian.
    • 4/5
      Working in the Lost and Found of the TTC for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds a leather book, a diary filled with the secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. He can’t stop reading it and is determined to find the madman.Story narrated by Duncan. It is suspenseful as he puts himself in danger throughout the story. Title refers to his escape from the killer's home at the end of the book. This book reads like a real life murder mystery / detective story. It describes what life is like underground in the subway system. Reading the diary, Duncan could have turned it over to the police but instead chose to keep it to himself, and by pursuing the killer, he puts his own life in danger. Awards WINNER 2004 - ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant ReadersWINNER 2004 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
    • 4/5
      Sixteen year old Duncan works in the "dungeon", the lost and found department of the Toronto Transit Commossion. All belongings left on the subway make there way here. Duncan finds a leather-bound diary chronicling a serial killer ("Roach") in the making. The cops aren't interested, so Duncan sets out to stop him.
    • 5/5
      Fast-paced and scary read which takes place during the summer in Toronto. Duncan works in the subway's lost and found office. When he finds a leather bound diary and realizes he's reading the diary of a murderer, he becomes obsessed with saving the killer's next victim...
    • 5/5
      This is a real page-turner. I was willing to "suspend my disbelief" that 2 teenage kids would even dare to track down a potential serial killer because when the boys went to the cops, they were indifferent. I like that the author thought about how I (as an adult...and teacer) might react...and responded with a realistic scenario.The ending is truly exciting - I don't recall turning pages...just reading as fast as I could. Great book!
    • 5/5
      Ohh...this book was creepy and action packed. Duncan gets stuck with a horrible summer job. Working in the back room in the lost and found at the subway in Toronto, he finds a diary. He starts to read it and is shocked by what he finds - a detailed account of animal killings, arson, and a desire to do something bigger. Duncan is being haunted by his own demons. He tried to save a drowning girl the summer before, but didn't quite get to her in time. He talks his friends, Vinnie and Wayne, to help him investigate this mystery man after the police refuse to take the issue seriously. Wow, I couldn't put this book down - especially the last few chapters!
    • 5/5
      3.Seventeen year old Duncan is working in the lost and found of the Toronto Subway system for the summer. His job is to sort through and organize all the forgotten items. When he stumbles upon a leather-bound journal, Duncan realizes that he is holding in his hands the diary of a madman possessed with torturing animals, burning buildings, and now hunting women on the subway. With the help of his friends, Duncan takes it upon himself to track down this potential murderer. The plot is faced paced and the text works well in audio format. The characters in the book are well laid out and believable.
    • 5/5
      Minutes into this book, I knew it was worth listening to. Narrated in the present, Duncan works in the subway lost-and-found ("the morgue, where careers go to die"), where among "the library of forgotten books" he discovers the diary of a serial killer. Still emotionally suffering from his inability to save a drowning woman the year before, Duncan feels compelled to try to stop the writer before he follows through on his plans.
    • 5/5
      Wow. This book is one of the best teen fiction novels I have read in a LONG time. I really liked the humor and the character interaction. I seriously found myself laughing at some of their spontaneous comments.A great mystery with good characters. Though the ending was good, I feel like it was a little bit of a let down. It felt like they worked too hard for it to end like that. But I can see why McNamee ended it that way. If you liked this book, I highly suggest The Killer's Cousin and Locked Inside; both by Nancy Werlin. They both have the same kind of mystery and the same kind of humor.
    • 4/5
      While working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto transit authority, Duncan finds a diary of a serial killer. Duncan decides that he must find the killer and stop him. Duncan sees it as sort of a redemption for not saving a drowning girl the previous summer.