Easter Eggs from HIGH & DRY by Sarah Skilton

My second YA book, a desert-set mystery called HIGH & DRY, comes out today, woo-hoo!

What's it about? Framed for a stranger's near-fatal overdose at a party, blackmailed into finding a mysterious flashdrive everyone in school seems anxious to suppress, and pressured by his shady best friend to throw an upcoming game, high school soccer player Charlie Dixon spends a frantic week trying to clear his name, win back the girl of his dreams, and escape a past that may be responsible for all his current problems.

"A dark, well-constructed mystery with a strong voice." - Kirkus Reviews 

To celebrate the book's release, I thought I'd share some behind-the-scenes Easter eggs with my fellow sleuths.

1) Lead character Charlie Dixon is named after Dixon Steele, Humphrey Bogart's character in the film In a Lonely Place.

2) Charlie's scheming ex-girlfriend, Bridget Flannery, is named after Brigid O'Shaughnessy in THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett.

3) Mr. Donovan is the name of a teacher at both Charlie's school in Palm Valley, California, and at Imogen's school in Glenview, Illinois (the setting of my first book, BRUISED). One of the Donovans teaches history, the other, statistics. This was simple human error on my part. OR WAS IT? Perhaps one of the Mr. Donovans is an imposter! Perhaps there are clues placed carefully throughout one or both books... You decide.

4) There are three possible references to Breaking Bad in the book. This is fairly bizarre considering I hadn't seen a single episode of the show when I wrote HIGH & DRY. Since then, I've become a big fan, which is why I noticed that...

 a) In Breaking Bad, Skyler White's maiden name (and Walter White's alias) is Lambert. In HIGH & DRY, Charlie's father teaches new media journalism at a local liberal arts college called Lambert College.

 b) In Breaking Bad, Flynn is the name that Walter, Junior occasionally demands to be called. In HIGH & DRY, a Flynn Scientific baseball cap is evidence in a crime.

 c) Breaking Bad was originally set in Riverside, CA. Palm Valley is based on locations near the same Inland Empire locale.

You can pick up HIGH & DRY at any of these fine retailers:

Barnes & Noble

Indiebound

Powell's

Amazon

Sarah Skilton is the author of BRUISED, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and which the Horn Book called, "nuanced and honest." She lives in southern California with her magician husband and their young son.

On the Trail of YA Sports Mysteries

Lately I'm reading a lot about sports, since my work in progress involves athletes. Most of what I'm reading right now is nonfiction, as I try to understand the psychology of athletes as well as the nature of sports crimes. The world of pro sports has lots of money, and where there's money, there's bound to be crime. This intrigues me. And even at development and amateur levels, sports are filled with conflict. Sports are rich narrative territory to explore for mystery writers.

That said, most of the sports crime novels I've found are for adults. So I'm on the hunt for great sports mysteries for young readers.

I've been slowly making my way through all of John Feinstein's books, which are generally categorized as middle grade -- though occasionally I see the more recent ones in the young adult sections, as the duo of sleuths grow older.

I'm really enjoying Feinstein's books; each one focuses on a different sport, from football to baseball to (this year) Olympic swimming. Sometimes I'm not interested in the sport (football -- I know, sorry!) but the mystery (a doping scandal) pulls me in. Sometimes I'm not interested in the mystery -- at first -- but the sport (swimming, tennis) pulls me in. Across the series, I like that Feinstein's sleuths are talented young sportswriters with media connections, and they are able to get close to all kinds of sports personalities and stories. It's a wonderful premise.

But I'm looking for slightly older sleuths and other voices too.

So. What other sports mysteries are there for YA readers?

There's Chasing Alliecat, a mountain biking mystery by Rebecca Fjelland Davis. I loved this book. It's a total thrill ride, about three teens who, on a bike ride, find the body of a priest in the woods -- badly beaten, near death -- and one of the friends disappears shortly after.The mystery revolves around Allie, a feisty mountain bike racer, and her connection to the priest. Some fantastic biking scenes move the mystery along at a fast clip.

Are there more YA sports mysteries out there? Or should I stop reading for awhile and get busy exercising? (One side effect of all this sports reading is the nagging sensation that I need to get off the couch!)

Readers, help me out! If you know of some titles, please leave them in the comments section! And if you DON'T know of any, I'm curious, what sports would you enjoy reading about? Why aren't there more sports mysteries for teens -- many of whom are actively involved in sports?

Please weigh in -- then give me ten push-ups!

PS - There's still time to enter our giveaway! Click here to check out this week's Interrogation Room interview with Kimberly Reid and enter to win signed paperbacks of MY OWN WORST FRENEMY and CREEPING WITH THE ENEMY!)

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Diana Renn grew up in Seattle and now lives outside of Boston with her husband and son. TOKYO HEIST (Viking/Penguin, published June 2012) is her first novel.