Body of Evidence

Jenna Blake, a freshman in college, wants to be a doctor like her mother. Unfortunately, she has a deep dislike of blood and an even deeper fear of doing harm to someone. Her father suggests an unusual option-medical examiner. Although Jenna finds the idea disgusting, she decides to go for an interview at the campus hospital. Part of the interview involves witnessing an autopsy. What she learns there draws her into a medical mystery with political ramifications. Unsure who she can trust, Jenna fights to discover the source of a new and lethal disease. But in her determination to find the truth, she makes herself the target of a sinister killer. Her only hope is to outsmart this ruthless shadowy figure. Body Bags offers an intelligent, believable young woman while building suspense to a fever pitch. Narrator Julie Dretzin perfectly captures Jenna's courageous spirit.

Jenna Blake is home from college for the holidays, and this is one vacation she'll never forget. A childhood friend has suddenly erupted in a murderous rage. When other teens follow suit, the authorities blame the violence on video games and movies. But Jenna believes something far more sinister is behind the madness.

Jenna Blake's second semester in college is off to a good start. She has a new boyfriend and a job she loves in the county medical examiner's office. Then an African-American couple on campus is brutally attacked. Racial tension suddenly floods her normally liberal campus. The African-American students don't think the police are doing all they can to find the killer. When a white student is killed, the campus erupts in a storm of protests, rallies and peace marches. As the violence escalates, Jenna finds herself defending her own interracial romance and frantically looking for clues to the killer's identity. Many librarians for young adults call Christopher Golden the bridge between Caroline B. Cooney and Steven King. With Jenna, he has created a character that is smart and determined. Her steely nerve is perfectly captured by narrator Julie Dretzin.