A solid choice for readers hungry for an absorbing mystery.
A teen exiled to Turkey for the summer gets wrapped up in a deadly game of smuggle-the-priceless-artifact.
After her father, a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, is caught having an affair, 16-year-old Zan Glazer takes to drinking and shoplifting. To escape negative press, Zan and her mother join Zan’s recently widowed aunt for a cruise on the gorgeous Turkish Riviera. Zan, the only person under 18 on a boat full of geezers, is happy to make friends with sophisticated American exchange student Sage Powell, but when Sage exits the tour without warning, Zan finds herself in possession of several valuable—and stolen—pieces of antiquity. Unfortunately, the items are part of a larger smuggling network, and the criminal element believes Zan knows Sage’s whereabouts—and the location of a priceless urn. In a world where heroes might be villains (and the latter might be the former, with satisfying twistiness), Zan can only trust herself to find the missing urn and get to the bottom of a family mystery that may be connected to the larger picture. Almost imperceptibly, Zan, who is used to disguises, both for her father’s sake and to hide the vitiligo slowing taking over her body, learns to be her authentic self in her fight to survive, a believable character arc that suits the plot nicely.
A solid choice for readers hungry for an absorbing mystery. (Thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-670-01559-7
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will be captivated by this twisty thriller and its uncompromising protagonist.
The mother Annabel Price thought was dead returns with a story about where she’s been—but 18-year-old Bel knows she’s lying.
Ever since Rachel Price’s unexplained disappearance 16 years ago, true-crime fans have come up with plentiful theories about what happened. Bel and her family members, who are white, cobbled together lives for themselves after a jury found Bel’s father, Charlie, not guilty of murdering his wife. Beset with medical bills for his elderly father, Charlie recently agreed to participate in a documentary about the unsolved mystery. Black British filmmaker Ramsey Lee is well into the process of interviewing the Prices when his project gets an unanticipated boost after an exhausted, disheveled Rachel staggers back into town. Rachel is eager to resume her role in the family, but the inconsistencies in her accounts raise alarms for Bel. With the help of the youngest member of the filmmaking team, Bel sets out to learn what really happened. Along the way, someone else disappears, and Bel uncovers a tangle of lies that make it impossible for her to trust people she thought she knew. When things come to a head the night of her grandfather’s 85th birthday party, Bel ends up in a race for her life. The last quarter of the novel tears along at a breakneck pace before arriving at a satisfying and unexpected conclusion.
Readers will be captivated by this twisty thriller and its uncompromising protagonist. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593374207
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
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