Full of engaging characters, the mystery will sweep readers along toward its dramatic, high-wire conclusion.
Mathison’s delightful YA period mystery features identical twin detectives.
Seventeen-year-old identical-twin sisters Vivian and Viola Van der Beeck are delighted and intrigued when Follies starlet Babs Le Roy decides to rent a room in their New York City house. It’s 1931, and the formerly aristocratic Van der Beeck are down on their luck after the 1929 stock market crash, an event which compels the twins’ parents to take in a colorful group of lodgers. The two girls are quite different: Vivian is relentlessly logical while Viola is intuitive and literary, but their minds work in concert in an almost preternatural way, a fact that sometimes confounds their parents and drives their dreary and rather hapless governess, Mistress DuBois, to distraction. The girls must use all of their powers of observation and intuition when Babs suddenly disappears from the chorus line of the Ziegfield Follies and they are questioned by the police about the missing starlet’s whereabouts. Vivian searches for clues in the traditional manner of detectives, but Viola is struck by the parallels between the facts surrounding Babs’ disappearance and the plot of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Also in play is the matter of the Van der Beeck family curse, a multi-generational tendency toward eccentricity and sudden disappearances that, Viola is certain, has some bearing on the current situation; “Oh, not that old rot,” says practical-minded Vivian. “People make their own rotten luck.” Will the combined efforts of these identical (but very different) twins be sufficient to solve the mystery? This story is accessible and nicely set in Depression-era New York City. The novel is enjoyably paced and the relationships between the characters, especially the precocious twin detectives Viola and Vivian, are lively and authentic. The details of the setting are well researched, and readers will enjoy the author’s ability to capture the rapid evolution of the entertainment business in 1930s New York City. For those who enjoy parallels between classic and contemporary fiction, the references to The Scarlet Letterwill be especially welcome.
Full of engaging characters, the mystery will sweep readers along toward its dramatic, high-wire conclusion.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781959067900
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Starr Creek Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense.
Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood; he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. The original investigation concluded with most of the evidence pointing to Sal, who was found dead in the woods, apparently by suicide. Andie’s body was never recovered, and Sal was assumed by most to be guilty of abduction and murder. Unable to ignore the gaps in the case, Pip sets out to prove Sal’s innocence, beginning with interviewing his younger brother, Ravi. With his help, Pip digs deeper, unveiling unsavory facts about Andie and the real reason Sal’s friends couldn’t provide him with an alibi. But someone is watching, and Pip may be in more danger than she realizes. Pip’s sleuthing is both impressive and accessible. Online articles about the case and interview transcripts are provided throughout, and Pip’s capstone logs offer insights into her thought processes as new evidence and suspects arise. Jackson’s debut is well-executed and surprises readers with a connective web of interesting characters and motives. Pip and Andie are white, and Sal is of Indian descent.
A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9636-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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