The Prince Of Venice Beach

The Prince Of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson, 233 pages

Cali, a teen runaway, knows a lot about what’s happening in Venice Beach.  When a private investigator approaches him, asking for help finding another runaway, Cali accepts.  He finds the kid, who has had some rough experiences and is ready to go home. Cali thinks that he might like to get into that line of work eventually. More private investigators start asking for help finding people and Cali is eager but starts to find that finding people might be more complicated than he thinks.  People’s stories may not always be true and there may be good reasons for people not wanting to be found.  Looking for Reese, another teen runaway, may be one of those complicated stories.  Who is telling the truth; Reese, her father, the PI looking for her?  Cali just isn’t sure, and he isn’t sure how to proceed.  This story seemed a little simplistic in some ways, but I still found it a satisfying read.  I think that teens who like realistic fiction would enjoy it.