I had never heard of this particular "true crime story" before reading this novel. Mr. Coles helps you see another side of this mystery - one that makes sense and is entirely believable. I enjoyed the interplay between Jury and the college students/sleuths. I would be interested in reading a sequel and seeing how these characters evolve. My only complaint (thus no 5th star) was the subplot with Dee's mom - fascinating stuff but it just went nowhere without resolution. I thought this relationship was ripe for further development. Good job, overall!

Compass in the Blood is the sort of a book young and old adults could enjoy, especially anyone who love mysteries.

Now I am not a person who particularly likes mysteries, but I loved Compass, in part because of the historical basis. Like many people I am more and more drawn to "creative non-fiction," and I was hooked into the story in part by my fascination with the Mrs Soffel story. What a great story that is,this old scandal involving a warden's wife who aids in a jailbreak. And how charming to ahve the story unfold throguh the research of a jigh school senior who starts off by doing a "term paper" on Mrs Soffel.

As a father of three and a person who has spent a career teaching college kids, I was drawn to the young "researchers"-Dee, Megan, and Cory-such a warm but realistic version of young people. Optimistic in ways, but accurate it seems to me. And I loved the relationship of Jury, their older employer/advisor to them-imaging so nicely the teacher-student partnership. As with Another Kind of Monday (Coles owonderful previous novel), I loved the echoes of the teaching life, the way this research project makes partners of the young and the old, makes them colleagues at the end (which puts a smile on my mind). This was one of the best books, most fun and fastest reads I have come across this year. I teach children's literature, and while this is a great book for young adults, it really is also a great book for anyone.

As a Young Adult librarian, I read this book thinking I could recommend it to my readers if I liked it. I really liked the 1st half of the book, a real page-turner. The whole tie-in with the story of Great Expectations is wonderful, and the idea of a "quest" sounded fun. I even managed to smile at the references to the nasty, unhelpful "librarian" working at the "Circulation Desk" - most of us that have set foot in a (largish) public libary know that librarians do not work at Circulation Desks anyway, so I tried not to take it personally. Towards the end of the story, I had really lost a lot of interest in the "quest", and in the characters as well. I was waiting for a climax, but there was none. I thought the ending was totally ...well, boring actually. Maybe I just didn't get it, but I still can't figure out if going on this quest (risking their life, really) was worth it to the main characters,in the end. I don't think so.

I found this book to be very exciting. As a Pittsburgh native, the vivid descriptions and the awesome facts about the city really peaked my interest. Mark was an interesting thoughtful young man that wasn't sure where he was going until he met and feel in love with Zeena. I was disappointed, however, that Zeena stayed so angry throughout the book, but I tried to understand her viewpoint. Also, I would have liked to have seen what happened with Mark and his father, but overall the book was a good read.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I was interested in the people that the characters had to research and the quests they had to do. It made me want to learn more about them. But I feel the plot itself was lacking a little. All in all though I thought it was a good story and I would read other things written by the author.