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 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
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements.
A wary teen wonders if she should run when people come looking for her.
Lucy Smith was raised by her white father, who said little about her mother. Following his death and her stepmother’s abandonment, Lucy entered the foster care system at 14. Her stepmother revealed that Lucy’s birth mom was Native American, but her social worker urged her to keep that quiet. Battered by her time in the foster care system, it’s no wonder that 18-year-old Lucy is cautious when she’s approached by a man who says he’s an attorney who helps Native American foster kids connect with their families and communities. He introduces her to a friend who reveals to Lucy that she knows her Ojibwe maternal relatives—but a wary Lucy refuses her offer to learn more. Someone is stalking her, after all, and the FBI is investigating the bomb that went off in the diner where she worked—an event she’s sure targeted her. This stand-alone from bestseller Boulley, who’s an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes characters her fans will recognize from previous works. The action scenes are mediated by ruminations on the failings of the foster care system and strong portrayals of Lucy’s relationship with her father and her complicated identity. Ardent book lover Lucy is a sympathetic narrator whose strong sense of justice is coupled with a deep acceptance of others.
A powerful story of family, belonging, and identity interlaced with thriller elements. (content warning, author’s note) (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328533
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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