Nothing Club, The

Four delinquent teens are inadvertently pulled into a criminal investigation that challenges their deepest values and misconceptions.

Poor choices land four outlier teens in summer-time mandatory community service. Deemed good-for-nothing by those who judge, they label themselves The Nothing Club. After inadvertently setting a grass fire with fireworks, Grady is the first to arrive for community service, followed by the walled and tattooed Margaret, the genius Nikki, and the animal-loving Free Throw, who subsequently meet the I-wish-I-were-invisible concession girl, Catherine.

The teens are supervised by the philanthropic and diabetic widow Mrs. Stafford and her maintenance man, Reg - a non-judgmental mentor with an unconventional approach to rehabilitation. But when a small child and Catherine go missing Reg is the prime suspect. The teens are determined to exonerate him and find their missing friend but their well-meaning efforts lead them further into the activities similar to those that landed them in community service in the first place.

Fast-paced and energetic, the novel is told from 15-year-old Grady’s humorous, often self-deprecating and sometimes-insightful, perspective.

The teens’ experiences pave the way for their personal transformations and unlikely, yet profound, friendships. The novel explores the relationship between trauma and self-forgiveness and the multiple ways that people engage in faith and spirituality.