The Trouble with Lemons by Daniel Hayes combines a mystery story with a coming-of-age tale about a kid, Tyler McAllister, who doesn't quite fit in at his new school, not helped by his discovery of a body. The author does an effective job at combining these elements. The true joy in the novel, though, comes in the creation of the lead character and his friend, Lymie, the two oddballs at their school. These two characters will pull the reader through the book and allow any reader to identfy with them and their struggles both at school and in solving the mystery, the flip side of those darned popular Hardy Boys. Everyone has felt the oddball in school and these characters are both outsiders in the system in school and representative of a typical early teenager. A neat trick for the author to pull off. A very good first novel by the author for kids.