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    The Penalty
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    The Penalty
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    The Penalty
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Penalty

    Written by Mal Peet

    Narrated by Christopher Lane

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    As the city of San Juan pulses to summer's sluggish beat, its teenage soccer prodigy, El Brujito, the Little Magician, vanishes without a trace-right after he misses a penalty kick and loses a big game for his team. Paul Faustino, South America's top sports reporter, is reluctantly drawn into the mystery of the athlete's disappearance. As a story of corruption and murder unfolds, Faustino is forced to confront the bitter history of slavery and the power of the occult. A deftly woven mystery flush with soccer and suspense, this gripping novel is one that shouldn't be missed.

    From the award-winning author of Tamar, a time-shifting thriller about a vanishing soccer star, occult secrets, and the dark history of slavery.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateFeb 28, 2011
    ISBN9781455800773
    Unavailable
    The Penalty

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    Reviews for The Penalty

    3.5/5

    20 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An excellent sort of sequel to Peet's first novel, Keeper. On the surface, The Penalty is about a young missing soccer player. But dig deeper and it's really a novel about religion, about belief and about trust. I wasn't sure I'd like this one as much as Keeper, but I do. A few of the same characters, including the journalist who mostly acts as the main character, come back. I look forward to more books that take place in this same, imaginary South American universe.
    • 2/5
      Ricardo Gomes de Barros’ extraordinary soccer skills garnered fame for the 18-year-old, but his disappearance after a critical game leads sportswriter Paul Faustino to investigate “El Brujito’s” vanishing act. When he asks too many questions, Faustino is kidnapped and taken into the rural countryside where Barros grew up; there he learns of the ancestor worship and “Veneration” that the displaced slaves brought with them to the New World. Dividing the narrative between Paracleto, a 1700’s Loma slave, and Faustino, Peet uses Paracleto’s voice to expound some vital information to the reader, but the divided narrative jars readers from the present mystery and reduces the cohesiveness of the work as a whole. The lack of background information will leave readers with questions about ancestor worship and other religious traditions among displaced Africans, and further questions about the history of slavery in South America. Including an appendix with both timeline and glossary of the various gods would increase the effectiveness of the text. Similar to Tamora Pierce’s “Immortals” quartet, Peet’s god characters appear, provide cryptic insight, and fade back out; however, they are the most interesting characters in the work. The serendipitous nature in which Faustino eventually discovers Barros reduces the mysterious element of the story to a mere side note in the plot, which had previously suffered from a lack of suspense.