Dooley takes the fall is about a boy named Ryan Dooley who has a rough past. Dooley as he likes to go by is a 17 year old boy who has had a couple of strikes against him already. Dooley who just recently moved in with his uncle, a retired cop, has made Dooley live a "straight edge" life since he moved in with him. Dooley used to be a really heavy drinker and used to smoke alot, he now hasn't had a drink in months. The book begins with Dooley walking home from work and seeing a kid jumping off a bridge. The kid who jumped off the bridge was a boy named Mark Everley, a boy who went to Dooley's school. Turns out that Mark has a sister named Beth, who begins to question Dooley about her brother. Dooley begins to really like this girl, and she thinks that he had something to do with the death of her brother. Throughout the questioning Dooley meets someone named Winston Rhodes who is a rich boy that also goes to his school. Rhodes is throwing a party ro raise money for the Everley family, and he invites Dooley to go, what do you think will happen?