Letter to Readers from April Henry
August 15, 2010 by admin
Filed under Featured Author, Featured This Week
ENTER TO WIN ONE OF 3 COPIES OF
SHOCK POINT!
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Dear Reader:
I make my living by stealing and killing – but it’s only on paper. A few years back, I was reading the New York Times when I came across a story about teens suing shady overseas boot campsthat routinely beat and mistreated students. I immediately thought – “I need to ‘steal’ that story!”
So I took it and made it my own and called it Shock Point. And I added a twist. I had also read about unscrupulous doctors who enrolled patients into drug trials and then did things like keep a pitcher of “clean” urine in the office fridge. I combined the two and wrote the story of Cassie Streng, a 16-year-old girl who discovers her psychiatrist step-father is covering up that three teenage patients enrolled in his drug trial have died. But before she can meet with a reporter, she finds herself shipped off to a boot camp in Mexico after her stepfather plants drugs in her room. She thinks the men who capture her are kidnapping her. This actually happens in real life – parents can pay someone to “kidnap” their kid and forcefully take them to a boot camp.
So how can Cassie escape the hellish boot camp and come back to the United States to expose her stepfather and prevent further deaths?
I write some books for adults and some for teens, and have been lucky enough to be on the New York Times bestseller list. I love nothing better than putting my characters in a jam – and seeing how they get out of it.
~Cynthia
I love the story line of this book and can’t wait to read. I have added to my wish list. Thanks for writing such a great book that inform us of what is happening in our own towns. Parents and/or step parents with money are prone to remove the road blocks that are preventing them from having or obtaining what they want at some time in their life. Unfortunatly it is usually children who are the obstacle and are removed to a place where they can not disrupt their parents lives. It is sad to see this happening more and more in this day and time. Adults are so spoiled that they can’t see anything in their future but what they want and take whatever steps they are required to do to remove the obstacle and obtain their desires.