The Crash Crystal

Kirkus Review called this book: “A rollicking adventure…” “Fast-moving action…” “A multiple-viewpoint adventure
that’s fun to copilot…”

Using LEGOs that he assembles in eerily accurate crash-site scenes, Mack McCarthy (12) can predict why planes crash with dead-on accuracy after getting a crystal as a gift from his dying grandfather. Mack’s father, Jake, is a top NTSB air-crash investigator, and Jake is freaked when Mack calls him up, out-of-the-blue, at a crash-site and calmly, accurately explains why the plane crashed. Mack secretly knows his inspiration came from a highly accurate crash-site assembly he made in his room, astonished by how his hands were somehow guided by this strange new force.
Mack’s dad and mom, Lily, think that Mack’s dead-on prediction is a fluke, at first. Jake tests Mack’s abilities by bringing his son to a crash site, promising his co-workers that Mack’s got a rare gift. But under pressure, Mack embarrasses his dad and fails to determine what crashed a cargo jet full of medicine. But back home, Mack defiantly bounces back, using his LEGOs to solve another crash, and then another… demonstrating he’s got a very rare gift indeed.
When Mack’s aunt – his faithful believer – ends up on a criminally doomed flight from Thailand, a daring, international, kids-on-the-run, romping story ensues. Mack teams up with school buddies, to evade police…as they use any means necessary – even some outside the law – to save lives. In the ultimate test of Mack’s rare gift, he gets to prove his doubters wrong once and for all when he and his father team up with a larger cadre of oddly gifted kids (who mysteriously appear with their LEGOs), to rescue themselves when the flight they are all on encounters fatal trouble.
After saving the flight, an international news sensation, the Smithsonian mounts an exhibit where mysteriously Mack’s crystal is stolen by masked boys...