The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo

Jack D. Ferraiolo is the kind of mystic who speaks only in metaphor. In the foreground, his first novel, “The Big Splash,” is a parody of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett,a young adult version of a rain-soaked noir in which a self-appointed private detective, Matt Stevens, skulks his junior high, trying to determine who engineered the hit that ended the social life of “Nicole Finnegan, a k a Nikki Fingers, . . . a dream girl . . . the kind who caused nightmares. She was 12 but could have easily passed for 14.”

Children’s Books - Book Review - ‘The Big Splash,’ by Jack D. Ferraiolo - Review - NYTimes.com.