Quid Pro Quo

A comic legal thriller for 10- to 14- year olds

Quid Pro Quo is a high-stakes, fast-moving legal thriller about real people, and funny people at that. Cyril MacIntyre’s mother is a twenty-eight-year-old ex-street kid who drags her son to all her law school classes, then proceeds to get herself kidnapped. That aside, Cyril’s life isn’t too different from that of other thirteen-year-olds. He has all the usual adolescent issues to deal with: parent problems, self-esteem problems, skin, hair and girl problems. He just has legal problems too. And he’s got to solve them if he wants to save his mother’s life.

Awards

Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Novel and CBC Young Canada Reads.
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens

Nominations

The Edgar Allan Poe Award
Canadian Library Association Children’s Book of the Year
New Jersey Library Association’s Garden State Teen Book Award
Ann Connor-Brimer Award
Red Cedar Award
Silver Birch Award
Bank Street College List of Best Books

“The kind of timing, pacing, dead-pan one-liners, and punchy humour that a seasoned stand-up comic would envy. Both real and funny.”
Quill & Quire, starred review

“A very, very funny book. I couldn’t put it down.”
CBC Radio’s Children’s Book Panel

“A thoroughly engaging whodunit!”
The Globe and Mail

“Funny, clever! Four and a half stars.”
Today’s Parent

“Hilarious…A clever plot twist or two, a lot of laughs and a new favorite narrator….”
Knight Ridder News Agency

“Humor, wackiness, intelligence, and suspense – what else would we wish for?”
KLIATT

“…a brilliant mystery-adventure novel…”
Canadian Children’s Book News