'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.