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.
Related to The Big Splash
Related audiobooks
Upstander Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Copycat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Center of Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Water Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts in the Gallery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Steering Toward Normal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tiara on the Terrace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishing Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thirteen Days to Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Milo and Jazz Mysteries: The Case of the Haunted Haunted House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurder at Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Missing on Superstition Mountain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comet Rising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Riverman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whisper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Whole and Perfect Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Icebreaker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Attack of the Mutant Underwear Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Keepers #3: The Portal and the Veil Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Friendship Riddle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Bird Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bystander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Audacity Jones to the Rescue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outside Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Drifters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUndertow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pale Phoenix: A Time Travel Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spaces In Between (Exit 13, Book 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ethan I Was Before Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
YA Mysteries & Detective Stories For You
Bloodmarked Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truly Devious: A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Found Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shelter: A Mickey Bolitar Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Little Liars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elatsoe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seconds Away: A Mickey Bolitar Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poison for Breakfast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is Our Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am the Cheese Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vanishing Stair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nine Liars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Safest Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nancy Drew: The Curse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What I Saw and How I Lied Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Box in the Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Stolen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Nights at Freddy's: Tales From the Pizzaplex #3: Somniphobia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Last Girl Breathing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Premeditation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Study in Charlotte Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Asylum Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing Mr. Griffin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Hand on the Wall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ink Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With Malice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead List Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The River Has Teeth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Big Splash
38 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Classic 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Clever 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."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Matt 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.”