Psychological Primer

Wellington author and English teacher Denis Wright’s debut young adult novel Violence 11 is reviewed in the Los Angeles Times by Susan Carpenter who says the book “is a solid psychological primer that should appeal to troubled boys — as well as those who interact with or love them.” “Burglary and theft are the most common crimes committed by juvenile delinquents, whose actions are often attributed to a jumble of emotional, economic and familial inadequacies,” Carpenter writes. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to juvenile crime, merely the distressing takeaway that, if untreated, underage delinquents will most likely commit even more serious crimes in adulthood. The new young adult novel Violence 11 attempts to unravel that causal jumble for the fictional character Hamish Green, a highly intelligent 14-year-old from a middle-class family who’s been shuttled from boys’ home to boys’ home for destroying public property, assaulting a school counsellor, arson, even homicide.”