Hit and Run

The first in the Mike and Riel series, Hit and Run (2003), a young adult mystery novel by Norah McClintock, centers on a teenage boy investigating his mother’s death because he doesn’t think it was accidental. Popular with its teenage audience, the book won the 2004 OLA Forest of Reading Red Maple Award. A bestselling author, McClintock typically writes for middle grade and young adult audiences. She is a five-time winner of the prestigious Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Novel, and her books are available in numerous languages.

The protagonist is fifteen-year-old Mike McGill who lost his mother in a hit and run. The driver has never been identified. Mike now lives with his uncle, Billy. Billy has a steady job as a garage mechanic, but he is not a good role model. He drinks and parties all the time, and his friends aren’t good influences on Mike. Mike is now an angry, smart-mouthed teenager with no direction.

As the book opens, Mike describes what happened the day his mother died. After school, a local woman, Mrs. McNab, babysat him. Billy then picked him up and took him home. His mother did not come home her she usual time. Someone ran over Mike’s mother, and she died at the scene. Mike has not been the same since.



Mike explains that Billy once lived with them. He didn’t have anywhere else to go until he got a steady job. Although Billy and Mike’s mother had a good relationship, things became tense when he started earning money. Mike does not understand why. All he knows is that Billy eventually moved out, and Mike’s mother was not sorry to see him go.

Another important influence in Mike’s life is his history teacher, Mr. Riel, an ex-cop who worked on the case of Mike’s mother. He is angry because he never found the perpetrator. Retiring from the force, he redirected his attention to helping young people. He is especially fond of Mike because of what happened. He also knows that Mike is smart and shouldn’t keep letting his grades and attendance slip.

One day, Mr. Riel tells Mike the truth about his past. He tells him about his old life as a police officer. He wants to kick-start the investigation again, because maybe if Mike finds out who killed his mother, he will move on and quit screwing up at school. Mr. Riel invites Mike to help him find the perpetrator. Unsurprisingly, Mike agrees.



The first thing they do is re-examine the existing evidence. Mr. Riel tells Mike that whoever killed his mother stole the vehicle. It wasn’t the vehicle’s registered owner driving the car that night. Mike wonders if the theft is somehow connected to his mother. He considers that whoever stole the car took it so they could kill her without leaving a trace.

Something else bothers Mike. Mike can’t stand Billy’s friends from the garage. Billy spends all his time drinking with them, and they are always getting into trouble. Mike wonders if one of those guys stole the car that night. Naturally, Billy does not want to hear this because he is just getting his life back on track. He won’t go around accusing his new workmates of theft and murder.

Mike gets arrested one day for stealing cakes and buns from the back of a delivery truck. His friends, Vin and Sal, propose the idea, but Mike goes along with it so he is just as culpable. Mr. Riel knows that he must steer Mike back onto a straight path before it is too late; Billy agrees. He will help Mike and Mr. Riel with their investigations because it is what Mike’s mother would have wanted.



Mike makes his own enquiries about her death. He visits her old friend, Mrs. Juhn. Mrs. Juhn is an elderly lady with various eccentricities. It is unclear how much help she will be, but it is worth a try. She tells Mike that she saw his mother the night she died. She spoke about visiting a man with shiny teeth. Mike doesn’t know anyone with shiny teeth, but he wonders if this man is responsible for the murder.

Mike tells Mr. Riel what he knows. Mr. Riel thinks this is a very strong lead and they must explore it right away. Before they probe further, Billy is found dead at home. Mr. Riel doesn’t think it’s accidental. He thinks that whoever killed Mike’s mother killed Billy, too, because Billy was close to solving the crime.

Billy’s workmates, Dan and Lew, invite Mike to stay with them until he finds a new home—they don’t plan to let him go. They hold him hostage and call Mr. Riel. It turns out that a man called Arthur wanted to commit insurance fraud. One of the mechanics he is friendly with stole his car so Arthur could make an insurance claim.



Arthur had no idea that anyone planned to use the car to murder someone. Dan killed Mike’s mother. He also killed Billy, because Billy found out the truth and planned to turn everyone in. Now homeless, Mike feels betrayed by so many people. Mr. Riel offers to look after him for a while until things straighten out.