The Fourth Stall Part II Book Review (Book Two of The Fourth Stall trilogy)

I’m sure everyone has had that administrator at school: the one that’s really uptight about every little thing and tries to sniff out problems that don’t exist. Mac has to deal with him in The Fourth Stall Part II, a middle grade novel about a boy who runs a shady business trying to keep his school intact, by Chris Rylander. (You can read my review of book one, The Fourth Stall, here.)

Mac, as always, is intensely likable. His humor and style bring out the world in the best possible way. (I mean, you can’t resist grandma jokes.) Rylander knows when to get off-topic and when to reel it back in; the balance drives the story. The reader can’t help but root for Mac, which makes the entire plot that much tenser.

The ensemble cast is effective for the story because schools have a lot of people, so it makes sense to have lots of characters who go to Mac’s school. It gives the book that mafia feel, when the reader only gets a snippet of a character before they’re off the page doing who-knows-what. This maintains the sense that any character could show up at any time, which encourages suspense.

Trixie von Parkway, besides having one heck of a name, is a heck of a character. She feels real even if she’s not always relatable. Her twisting and turning personality keeps the reader on their feet trying to figure her out. The plot twist with her at the end is well executed and surprising.

Recommended for anyone who wants to give noir a try but doesn’t want to go all in.

—Grace Nask