Steel Trapp: The Challenge by Ridley Pearson

This is the first book in a series, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. Steel Trapp is the name of a teenage boy with a photographic memory and a genius mind. While on his way to an invention competition in Washington, D.C., Steel notices a briefcase left behind on the train, and this begins his adventure. He discovers a photograph of a kidnapped woman and doesn't know who to trust with the information. Obviously, not the police! Steel is joined by a runaway genius from Chicago, and together they help solve the mystery and espionage. Steel's FIDOE, a scent-tracking robot, and his dog, Cairo, are very helpful in stopping Chicago gangsters from funding terrorists with American money.

This was an entertaining book, and I enjoyed the concept of the plot. Steel's photographic memory was almost a superpower, but he was basically a normal, frightened kid. Of course, he was unaware that his father was actually an undercover FBI agent working on the same case. The reader knows this information about the father early in the book, so I'm not really giving away a secret. It always amazes me in these books how the teenager manages to rationalize why it doesn't make sense to contact the police when they uncover criminal activity. Do our own teenagers lack the drive to be heroes, or do they have common sense? :o)