The Joy Riders is a lively, fast-moving, up to the minute read for young adults. Set in a deserted seaside town in autumn, it follows Jo"s adventures into "twocking" (taking without owners" consent). Jo and younger brother Ben live in a dockside tower block with their hard-working mother who struggles to make ends meet with two jobs. Jo feels responsible for Ben in her mother"s absence, and in trying to protect him from a life of crime becomes embroiled with, as she calls them, the brothers Grim. The brothers, Ash and Rainbow, blackmail Jo and for payment she must accept their increasingly imaginative dares. Jo"s emotions swing from the excitement and thrill she feels stealing the cars to fear and terror as she increasingly starts to dread each dare they give her. Tension mounts as Jo becomes wilder in her exploits, culminating in a thrilling finale which hurtles her abruptly back down to earth. --Pat Naylor