As a huge fan of the book The Body of Christopher Creed (pub. 2000), I felt a mixture of excitement and trepidation when I first learned of a sequel being published. Ever since reading it, the first book has stuck with me and remains one of my absolute favorites.
Now, published over a decade later, Following Christopher Creed picks off five years after the events in the first novel. Ever since young Christopher Creed ran away from home, the small town of Steepleton has been wrought with despair. Cancer and car accident rates are at an all-time high, more kids are turning down the path of drugs, and Christopher's family have yet to recover their loss.
College journalism student Mike Mavic has been obsessed with the Christopher Creed case ever since Chris's classmate Torey Adams launched a website chronicling his experiences with the mystery surrounding Chris's disappearance. After a dead body is uncovered in Steepleton, Mike, along with his girlfriend RayAnn, sells his laptop and travels there, in an attempt to get the story of a lifetime. Is this the body of Christopher Creed? Or is it yet another victim of Steepleton?
I'll admit, this novel was hard to get into at first. Because of its content, it was a bit of a slow burner. Lots of information, not a lot of action. Halfway through it definitely started to pick up the pace, but I still wasn't completely sold. Here was this great potential for a sequel to a book that is much loved, and I felt the author was wasting it with a bunch of pointless exposition. Then came the ending, which completely blew me away and caused me to completely reevaluate the entire novel.
Though it does work as a stand-alone, I'd recommend this book to all lovers of The Body of Christopher Creed and urge anyone who picks this up, but is struggling to get through it, to finish. The ending will not disappoint, and it made me want to do an immediate reread! Since I have seen many posts online that list Following Christopher Creed as the Steepleton Chronicles #2, here's to hoping Carol Plum-Ucci has number three in the works. There are many characters whose stories have yet to get closure, and I'd love to read about them for many books to come.
-Sam
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