The Boy on the Lawn
Young Michael DiSanto, Book 1
Now Available — Order today!
Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Google Play
Release Date: April 26, 2022
Genre: YA, Suspense, LGBTQ
Cover art: Les Byerley
Key words: teen sleuth, teen detective, siblings, brothers, missing brother, autism, teen thriller, teen mystery, teen lgbtq, Asian American
Length: Long novel
Word count: 86,180
e-book page count: 185
Price: 3.99 USD
Sixteen is too young to start criminal profiling. Someone out there’s given him no choice…
I’m not even sixteen yet and already had the worst day of my life: the day my younger brother, Stevie disappeared off our lawn. I was only gone a few seconds, getting change for the ice cream truck. I didn’t want to leave him but when he begs, I’ll do anything for him. In the time it took me to grab the change off the kitchen counter and run back out, he vanished. Thank God, he came back after less than a day. For whatever reason, whoever took him must have had a change of heart and returned him. Though, not before drugging him. He’s been acting weird ever since, even more so than when he displays that bizarre superpower of his.
Not only that, but my parents are acting weird too. I thought they’d be so happy and grateful, especially when, a few days later, other Asian boys began to disappear, and not come back. Not only aren’t Mom and Dad thrilled Stevie is back, they shuffled us off to live with our grandfather. I don’t have time to worry about that though. Now I know how it feels to have someone I love snatched away, all I can think about is finding those boys and getting them back home, which also means working with my grandfather’s former student, ultra-handsome Detective Ito (who leaves me tongue-tied and I’m sure my family has figured out now I’m gay because of it). Then Stevie and I can go back to our weird but more peaceful life of haunting the library stacks for homeschooling and Stevie’s beloved Spiderman comics… Fast forward… Why did I ever think Stevie and I could have our life back? We won’t, not ever. Not only that, Stevie’s superpower is actually contagious and I’m going to have bad need of it…
Publisher’s content warning: racism, off-page sexual abuse, family death and grief.
* * * *
In progress: The Boy Who Loved Ghosts
Young Michael DiSanto, Book 2
Cover art: Les Byerley
My life has always been strange. Now, it is strange on steroids. In my first night of the grief counseling support group for teens, there’s a girl who looks like she walked off the set of the Brady Bunch even though it’s 1985 and I realize, oh shit, the only people in the room who see her are myself and my best friend, Detective Kenneth Ito, who died saving my life and now haunts me and hasn’t been able to move on because we need each other. After the meeting, she comes up to me, needing my help. And she’s not the only one. This gorgeous kid from Japan who doesn’t speak English and needs me to translate for him has picked up on my ghost-whisperer status and he too has something to tell me only I will believe. Ito-kun and I already have our hands full…
Sedonia Jacobs Fiction with Spirit 