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    The Big Splash
    The Big Splash
    The Big Splash
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Big Splash

    Written by Jack D. Ferraiolo

    Narrated by Sean Schemmel

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Matt Stevens is as tough as a steak from the school cafeteria. He’s a seventh-grade private eye, and he just did something he said he’d never do. He accepted a job from Vincent “Vinny Biggs” Biggio, the kid behind every illegal deal made at Franklin Middle School, from black market candy to forged hall passes.

    You see, life at the Frank is tough. Get on the wrong side of Vinny Biggs and you’ll find yourself in the Outs, the least popular “club” in school. How do you get there? Water (or any other liquid) strategically splattered below your belt for maximum humiliation.

    When Nicole Finnegan, a.k.a. Nikki Fingers, the most feared squirt-gun assassin at the Frank, is put in the Outs, Matt feels partially to blame and is determined to find the trigger kid. Problem is, Nikki has more enemies than a snitch during a final exam. Every kid in school is a suspect, including Kevin Carling, Matt’s former best friend and the current right-hand man to Vinny Biggs. Matt had better watch his back, and especially his front, as he tackles a case with more twists than a candy addict on a swivel chair.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScholastic
    Release dateOct 1, 2008
    ISBN9780545142922
    The Big Splash

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    Reviews for The Big Splash

    4/5

    38 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Classic Raymond Chandler noir recast in middle school with squirt guns.Enjoyable, but probably better if you're either a) a kid, or b) fond of noir.
    • 4/5
      A noir-ish style mystery with a quick-talking, fast-thinking detective channeling Mickey Spillane. This tough guy is planted firmly in middle school, however. His case? A tough nut to crack, someone has put Nicky Fingers, the school "boss's" toughest hit woman, in the Outs with a well-targeted super-soaking. Private eye Matt Stevens doesn't have much to work with, and too many suspects. But he's on the case, and he's got connections.A fun, fast read, but I question the appeal for a middle-school audience unfamiliar with the genre.
    • 3/5
      Clever transplant of the hard-boiled detective novel (a la Raymond Chandler) to a middle school campus, complete with imaginative metaphors. Some of the elements work OK: the head hall monitor for the local cops, the school bullies for the crime boss's henchmen. Others stretch credulity, such as the kid who runs a sandwich shop out of his garage, for the corner bar. But overall, a comic romp as our narrator Matt Stevens tries to uncover who is behind a water-gun "hit."
    • 5/5
      Matt Stevens, Middle School Private Eye, is hired by Vinny Biggs, Franklin’s Underworld Boss, for a seemingly simple job. But in a school where one well placed squirt gun shot can “kill” your reputation forever, Matt has only a few days solve a case with “more twists than a candy addict on a swivel chair.”The Big Splash is a clever mafia/crime underworld spoof with a fast paced, twisty plot and a big heart. You have the boss and his goons who deal in forged hall passes and the like, his femme fatale squirt gun assassin Nikki Fingers (think a 12 year old Angelina Jolie), kids who dared to cross the boss and are now on the “outs” (social death), and even Pixy Stixers, kids who will do anything to get another (sugar) fix.I absolutely adored the writing, the humor, the characters and the realizations Matt came to during the case such as, “Waking up at 5:00 means you’re industrious, an early riser; waking up at 4:45 means you have trouble sleeping.” And “Once you’re convicted by a jury of your peers, it’s hard to get a new trial.” And my favorite (because it is sooo true): “I had recently come to realize that it was extremely rare to find friendships in which doing nothing special was the most fun thing you could ever hope to do.”