Caroline Rennie Pattison

This adventure-packed mystery novel will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Have you ever even imagined moving from a busy city to the quiet country side, leaving everything behind? Making friends can be a frightening thing, and most people wouldn`t dream of starting over from scratch. Whisked away by force and her father`s job transfer to Muskoka, teenager Sarah Martin faces her worst nightmare.

Without her friends, she feels like she`s lost her dignity, then she soon meets a girl named Mind, from her homeroom class. But when Mindi invites Sarah over to her mom`s boyfriend`s farm to ride horses, Sarah`s dad says no immediately. Being curious like she is, she sneaks out to Mr.Braemarie`s farm and soon realizes something strange-- and maybe illegal was going on.

As she digs deeper into the mystery with the reluctant help of her brother and Mindi, she soon learns that Mindi`s mother`s boyfriend was a bear-poacher &owns a bear farm, which could sentence him to months in jail or a hefty fine if he was caught.

Sarah is determined to solve the mystery, but little does she know, there was a lot more going on than she suspected.

I loved Caroline Rennie Pattison`s take on writing this in the form of a journal/report. I hope to see more Sarah Martin mysteries in the future. :)… (más)

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

A good mystery is hard to find, but here's one worth your time: THE WHOLE, ENTIRE, COMPLETE TRUTH. Caroline Rennie Pattison has written what I hope is just the beginning of the Sarah Martin Mystery Series.

Can you imagine the frustration of having your family uprooted from the city, cool malls, and tons of friends right at the start of your freshman year in high school? It has happened to Sarah Martin. She finds herself in the country riding a bus to a small town high school where it seems she will never meet a new best friend.

Sarah does manage to meet a friend in her first few days at her new school, but when that new friend invites her to the neighboring farm to ride horses, Sarah's father forbids it. Adding to the problem, Sarah's new friend, Mindi, admits that her mother's boyfriend also says a visit would be unwise. What is going on? Sarah's curious nature makes her suspicious, and, of course, she immediately plans a visit to the farm.

The twists and turns of the plot begin as the girls discover the secret of the padlocked barn. Live bears are being kept there in cages and mysterious visitors arrive at odd hours. At the same time, Sarah stumbles across an interesting police report on her father's desk that mentions Mindi's mother's boyfriend's name. She is determined to solve the mystery.

Pattison uses a journal-type approach in telling Sarah's story. Readers will be happy to see that the last chapter involves the starting of a new journal, which hopefully means further adventures for the curious Sarah Martin.… (más)

I had not realized that this book is actually a sequel to another, The Whole, Entire, Complete Truth as part of the series "A Sarah Martin Mystery." Despite not having read the first book though, this novel can stand alone as it is without much confusion.
Sarah Martin as a character was... well, quite frankly, I didn't like her. She was impulsive and immature. And her character just didn't quite match that of a Grade 9 girl. Sarah does not seem like a good role model for young girls to be reading this. She believes in all the rumours, however ridiculous, that her friends tell her about the Hopper family and goes to drastic and dramatic measures to investigate. I understand that she has this desire to be a detective like her father but her character was just a bit too much.
It is not only the character of Sarah that seems to be faulted. Her friends, or those she calls her friends, are obnoxious and shallow. They are judgmental and like Sarah, makes things more than what they are.
What I did find interesting was the small compilations of information that Sarah finds about the Mafia, witness relocation program and Wacca. In each of these, Caroline Pattison relates it back to Canada, so for Canadian students and readers, there was relevant information in between the story.
All in all, I didn't really enjoy this book and doubt I'll ever read the first novel of the series. Perhaps I'll lend this novel to my Grade 9 cousin and see if she enjoys it as she might connect to Sarah better.… (más)