'From up here, in my tree house, I can see over our back fence, into the yard of the house where Head was murdered. 'The day I used up the first of my nine lives, I had the worst idea I have ever had in my whole life. This brainwave threatened to shorten it by eighty years and eight lives. But obviously I didn't know all that when I jumped on my skateboard, and sailed around the block to Head's front door ' When Nick Riley decides to talk to his neighbour about the way he mistreats his dog, Nick himself becomes a murder suspect and a thief. Even worse, what he knows about Head's associates, Beale and Mad Pig Perron, could cost him his life. 'Nick Riley's Ninth Life' is a fast-moving adventure story with three young male primary characters. As with 'Dangerous Waters', same target audience] the books have proved highly successful for early high school reluctant readers, particularly young teenage boys.