| Zach’s Lie by Roland Smith
An adventure novel that will appeal to both upper elementary grade boys and girls, Zach’s Lie is the story of the Osborne family. As a young boy, Jack Osborne developed a love for reading and journaling while recovering from two broken legs. His older sister, Joanne, is a budding actress and their mom is a successful realtor. Jack’s father, a former Navy pilot and commercial pilot, has purchased a small flight company based in Texas and now spends much of his time away from the family on business. One evening in the dark of night, three men break into the Osborne’s home and bind and gag
Jack, Joanne and their mom, threatening them with guns and knives. They make a call to Jack’s dad and force his mom to simply say, “They will kill us if you talk.” The men then leave with a warning to the family that they will all be killed if they contact the police. As dawn approaches, however, officers from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency storm the house and begin emptying the residence of most of what is there. These agents tell the Osbornes that the father has been arrested for drug trafficking and that they know that men suspected of being part of the drug cartel were at the home earlier that evening. Mrs. Osborne, still fearful of talking with law enforcement, calls her attorney June Saunders. Ms. Saunders does some checking and confirms that Neil Osborne has been arrested and that the police have a considerable amount of video, photo, and phone evidence against him. The family is taken to a hotel as a safety precaution by Ms. Saunders, unaware that men working for Alonzo Aznar, a drug lord that Neil Osborne was transporting drugs for, are watching their every move. The family goes to see Mr. Osborne in jail for a brief visit. He admits his involvement in transporting drugs between the United States and Mexico, an involvement he planned to be only temporary until he could get his business in better financial shape. He fears for his family’s safety and tells them that he plans to provide the government with information on the drug cartel and that Jack, Joanne and Mrs. Osborne will be taken into the Witness Protection Program. He does not know when or if he will see them again but believes this is the only way to assure their safety.
Two U.S. marshals, “Aunt Doris” and “Uncle Don” as they tell the children to call them, allow the family to go by their home to get a few items to take with them to an interim location where they will be prepared to assume new identities. Jack, who will now be know at Zach Granger, gets the journals he has kept over the past few years and the special box he and his dad made to keep them in. After a very brief goodbye visit with Dad, the family begins their new lives. With hair that is now blonde and eyes that are now blue, Zach and his mom and sister, who also undergo “security makeovers”, are ultimately taken to Elko, Nevada to begin life as the Granger family. Their house in Elko, a small town at the base of the mountains, is much smaller than their previous home and Zach, unlike his sister, now known as Wanda, is not very motivated to move forward with his life. He sits around the house watching TV and writing in his journal as he waits for school to start.
Wandering into the middle school that he will attend 7th grade when classes begin in a few days, Zach meets the custodian, a man named Sam Sebesta. He is surprised a few days later to find that Sam is also part of the disciplinary force of the school. Zach, frustrated over being hassled by an 8th grader named Peter, slugs the upperclassman and is sent to Sam’s “office”, a basement room with a punching bag to talk and get out some of his anger. Sam tells Zach that he is welcome to come and talk anytime he feels a need to do so, and Zach has an intuition that Sam is more than just a school custodian. Unlike Wanda, who is trying out for the lead in the high school play and working part-time as a waitress, and his mom, who is renovating an old storefront to become a bookstore, Zach works to keep a low profile. He does become friends with a girl in his homeroom, Catalin Cristobal, and a boy in his grade, Darrell Gill, who loves playing video games and going hunting.
When Zach’s mom advertises for carpenters to help with the renovation, Sam, also proficient at that trade, applies and is hired to work on the bookstore in the evenings and on the weekends. Zach discovers that Sam and several of his helpers live at the Nevada Hotel, a local boarding house owned by Catalin’s parents. The hotel is known for the delicious food served in its family style restaurant where Catalin often waitresses for the evening meal. Zach, who is persuaded by Sam to tackle the job of cleaning out an abandoned storefront beside the hotel, begins eating supper at the Nevada several times a week. Catalin and Sam tell Zach about her grandfather who is a sheepherder and stays primarily up at his sheep ranch in the mountains. Zach continues to write in his diary about his new life, never realizing what problems this could cause if someone were to read it.
As they had arranged, Mrs. Granger sends a blank postcard to her attorney as a signal that the family is now safely relocated and that Mr. Osborne can give information about the cartel to the government without worrying about retribution against his family. Alonzo Aznar and his men, however, have been intercepting the attorney’s mail in an attempt to find the family. When they see the Elko postmark on the card, they realize that the family must be living there and Alonzo heads to the small Nevada town. Peter, the 8th grader who got in trouble for hassling Zach, finds the 7th grader’s unattended bookbag and rummages through it, finding and taking Zach’s journal. When Zach, who is staying at the Nevada Hotel and going up to the sheep camp with Sam while his mother and sister attend an out-of-town book convention, can’t find the journal in his bookbag he checks the special box where he keeps those he has completed. He does not find his journal but does find one written by his father detailing all of his drug trafficking activities. Zack realizes that someone must have his journal and may now know the truth about the Granger family. Peter then confronts Zach and tells him that he knows the truth about him and that Zach must stop being friends with Catalin, whom Peter wants to date, if he does not want the truth to be exposed. Zach goes to Peter’s trailer that evening, hoping to convince the older boy not to follow through with his threat. Peter is not there so Zach waits for him. Meanwhile, Peter, who had earlier been asked by Alonzo if he knew of a boy new to town whose father was not with the family, has gone to find this man and offer to trade information for money. Peter finds the man at the hotel but is bound and gagged after he shares what he knows about Zach. Alonzo and his henchmen go to Zach’s house but no one is home. They do hear a phone message from Zach’s mom telling him that she and Wanda are staying at a different hotel than they had originally planned. Sam, who is concerned that Zach has not shown up at the hotel, goes to the boy’s house and sees that someone other than the family is inside. He goes back to the hotel and when Zach finally returns, the two share the truths about their lives with each other. Sam is from Russia and was an agent for that country’s secret police before defecting to the United States where he then worked for U.S. intelligence efforts. He tells Zach that men from what he now knows must be the drug cartel are at his house. Sam agrees to contact the U.S. marshals and let them know what has happened. He and Zach then head up to the sheep camp. Catalin goes to Zach’s room, but finds that Alonzo and his men have gotten into the room after Peter has suggested Zach might be there. The men take Catalin up to the camp, offering to swap her for Zach. To get the men to release her, Zach says he has his dad’s journal back in town and will give it to them if they let Catalin go. The men agree and head back to town with Zach and Sam, who says that he had found that journal earlier in Zach’s room and hidden it at the school. Sam takes the group down into his basement room. The U.S. marshals, having been called earlier by Sam, arrive and arrest Alonzo and his men. Sam promises Zach that he will get his dad’s journal to him in jail so that this evidence can be given to the authorities in hopes that Mr. Osborne can one day be set free. Of course, the family will once again have to relocate and assume new identities to insure their safety from the long arms of the cartel.
Despite the rather not-so-smart actions of Zach and his family (keeping a journal that outlines everything they are trying to hide and mailing items to the attorney from their new town that is to be unknown to all), the book is well-written and has enough adventure and intrigue to keep most older elementary students reading to the end. The sequel to this book, Jack’s Run, continues the story of this family as they relocate once again.
Summary prepared by Cindy Brewer – September 2009
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