Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery
John Feinstein
Summary of Book
This book is a great book if you are into sports or mysteries. The book consists of both of these things. The story follows two middle school students who have won a writing contest, and the award of the contest is a chance to sit court side and write about the Final Four. Although, when the two winners, Susan Carol Anderson and Stevie Thomas, realize the Final Four isn't just about basketball, they're whole world is flipped upside down.
The Main Characters
There were three main characters in the book. The first two are the writers, Susan Carol Anderson and Stevie Thomas. The book is told from Stevie's prospective. The other character of the book is the best player in the country, Chip Graber. Chip isn't only a great basketball, he is also getting blackmailed by his assistant coach.
Details of the Story
If you didn't know the Final Four, the Final Four is something that is played every year in college basketball. Each year the best 64 teams in the country play in a tournament, and the last four teams remaining play in the Final Four which is a pretty big deal. Although, the Final Four in this book not just basketball. In fact, what happened was nothing that Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol thought would happen. When Stevie and Susan got there, they decided to explore the arena, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Although, when they get to a dark room where the Minnesota State team bus is unloading they here a strange conversation. They here a man talking to Chip Graber saying that he had to win his first game against St. Joseph's, but he could not win the championship or else his dad, who was the coach, would be fired, and the team would be stripped of all of their losses. This causes Susan and Stevie to go on a hunt to find out what is going on. This means lying to their parents, security guards, and even the coach Graber. Once Chip realizes that Susan and Stevie are serious that they want to help, he really tries to help them. One day, Chip, Susan, and Stevie go to a man named Dean Wanjeski's house to get information about the blackmail. Then on the night of the championship, several hours before tip-off, Chip takes the kids to a hotel room that Wanjeski said the "bad guys" were going to be staying at. When they arrive at the room, they see that Dean Wanjeski is actually a behind the whole blackmail, and Wanjeski ties up Stevie and Susan but lets Chip go to the game, but he threats that if he wins for his team, Dean will shoot Susan and Stevie. Then, all of a sudden, there was a knock at the door, and before they knew it, Stevie and Susan were being saved by the guy who they thought was a big part of the blackmail as well, Steve Jurgenson. Steve quickly unties them and takes them to the game just in time to tell Chip to start playing better because they were okay. Chip started playing amazing, he got the game tied after going on a 12-2 run. Then as time winded down, Chip Graber hit a shot right in front of half court at the buzzer. After the game two security guards arrested Dean Wanjeski and the assistant coach, Coach Whiting, and that was the end of the crazy Final Four.