Shelter

Shelter is fairly violent YA mystery, especially for readers as young as 12. The violence is depicted directly, as when the protagonist is brutally beaten by the adult villains, and indirectly, as in the implications concerning the "dungeon" in the basement of a strip club. Mickey employs his martial arts training against high school bullies (with little physical contact) and against adults (with a good deal of contact). The aftermath of a violent home invasion is depicted. A villain is shot in the head and dumped in the river (though not by Mickey).

Mickey has a very chaste romantic relationship with Ashley, the girl who disappears at the start of the novel, and he flirts with other girls at the high school. More problematic is the strip club that is central to the plot and the "white slavery" ring that operates from it. Coben acknowledges the realities of sexual trafficking but downplays its full implications.

For all the rough action, the dialogue is amazingly clean.

Throughout the novel, Mickey's mother is sequestered in a rehabilitation center for drug abuse. Her struggles with addiction cause her son great emotional distress and are depicted realistically.