THE LEGEND OF STONEHAVEN

Students unearth astonishing secrets at their English boarding school in Chase’s debut YA novel.

Peter Miller and his twin best friends, Angela and Tony Jacobson, finally receive their acceptance letters from Stonehaven Academy, and the 15-year-olds leave their Boston suburb (the families’ fathers were relocated for work) for their home country of England. Before they go, their parents gift them with “crosulars,” jewelry pieces each with a gem-adorned sword atop a shield. They also tell the teens about the Blue Lady, a legendary figure who helps Stonehaven students and sometimes appears as an apparition. Not surprisingly, Peter, Angela, and Tony become all but obsessed with searching the school for the Blue Lady, whom faculty members aren’t keen on talking about. The trio grows increasingly wary, careful not to mention the Blue Lady or even show anyone their crosulars, which they carry in their pockets. So why is a fellow student apparently spying on them? And why does the blueprint for a particular room at Stonehaven include a doorway and stairs that they can’t see? It turns out the academy has quite a lot to hide. Chase drops the likable, bantering young heroes (when Tony becomes enamored with a female student, Peter offers to grab a mop “to get the drool up off the floor”) into a deliberately paced story, meticulously establishing the setting. Vibrant characters enliven the pages, including some affable students, Stonehaven’s resident bully, Cedric, and the eccentric retired headmaster, Sir John, who hangs around the school (and is, per Angela’s assessment, “whacked out of his mind”). There’s definitely suspense on offer as Peter and the twins evade teachers and the new assistant headmistress in the course of their search (they don’t make any significant discoveries for some time; when they do, the narrative makes a surprising genre shift). The ending suggests that the author has a sequel in the works.

A superb cast enriches this quiet adventure with series potential.