Third Brick from the Right

Comical, insightful, disturbing, self-critical, oh-so-modern, “Wow! I thought only I felt that way!” Jarring, exciting, uplifting ... is Charles Ingram misguided, unstable, or inspired?


Fifteen-year-old Charles Ingram is on the run from the FBI. Traveling from New York State to Boston and then on to Vermont, Charles is determined to hide out as long as possible in a lakeside cabin, a pricey vacation getaway owned and neglected by his equally workaholic parents’ friends. Aware that he will be captured, he decides to write his story and explain why he and his gang committed their crimes. No longer a gamer, bully, or highly medicated and spoiled teen, he’s convinced the “System” has brainwashed people and turned them into digital pawns.


Ten minutes with these beauties and I could free a million souls, even if their preference was to live as slaves. I hoisted the cutters and brought the handles together. The glittering blades clacked noisily as I approached a cable as thick as my arm. I held the metal close. The System was practically shrieking …


Fast-paced and thrilling, Third Brick from the Right is a profound and hilarious send-up of life in the digital age.


About the Author

Nicholas Maes is a Toronto high school history teacher and teaches Classics part-time at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His previous young adult novels include Locksmith, Crescent Star, Laughing Wolf, Fortuna, and Transmigration, and he is currently writing a new novel for young adults, The Forever Road.