Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl

By John Feinstein

Sport: Football

Rating: 4 1/4 stars

Reviewed by Noelle

This sportswriter for the Washington Post scores another touchdown with his sports mystery series for kids. Stevie and Susan Carol, our sportswriting tweens from his two previous books, are off to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, but this time there's a twist. Since we last left them, Stevie and Susan Carol had been hosting a sports tv show called KidSports. Then the station, dumps Stevie, right before the Super Bowl, in favor of a popular guy from a boy band. But he rebounds when he gets an offer to go write for his paper as well as do some pieces on tv for CBS. But in true Stevie and Susan Carol fashion, trouble finds them when a doctor for one of the teams hints at a party that some of the players tested positive for steroid use--and it is being covered up. If Stevie and Susan Carol can prove this is true, they can change the whole course of the Super Bowl. But having someone agree to be the fall guy for this one is going to be tough, especially when you are going up against one of the nastier owners in the NFL. The real meat of this story is the fascinating behind the scenes look at the media blitz surrounding one of the biggest sporting events in the world, as well as the careful moves reporters must make to be sure of a story before broadcasting it to the world. There is also some development in the budding relationship between Stevie and Susan Carol. Sports fans will love the football lingo and action, and mystery fans will be drawn in by the twists and turns of the cover up. A fast moving story by someone who really knows what it is like under the dome. Good stuff!