Enthusiastically, chaotically delightful.
Another thrilling mystery from our young Victorian sleuth.
All the members of Myrtle’s household are suffering from malaise at the lack of crimes to investigate. Myrtle; her father, the Prosecuting Solicitor; and her brilliant governess, Miss Judson have no villainies to uncover, and it’s so dull. It’s exciting when Father gets pulled into the case of a long-ago shipwreck—is Sally, a White girl about Myrtle’s age, an heiress or a fraud? But the case of Sally-the-possible-heiress will have to wait; Father needs his tonsils removed (a dangerous surgery in 1894, even in a “marvelous specimen of modernity” like the Royal Swinburne Hospital). When Father witnesses a murder in the hospital, is it real or a delusion? Only Myrtle and Miss Judson, ably assisted by Sally and Peony, Myrtle’s talkative cat, can expose the truth. Myriad secrets all come back to the central mystery, and though some tertiary subplots are lightly developed, the mystery as a whole is charming. How can it be otherwise when solved by “a cat, a dog, two doctors, a journalist on crutches, an unemployed law clerk, a solicitor in pyjamas, a nurse with a cricket bat, a governess, an off-duty housekeeper, and one small frantic Investigator”? Myrtle’s family is White; multiple characters of color are present, including biracial French Guianese Miss Judson.
Enthusiastically, chaotically delightful. (Historical mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-61620-921-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A promising fiction debut.
Family secrets, an unsolved bank robbery, summer on a lake, a treasure island and a first romance are the ingredients for this inviting middle-grade mystery.
Unhappy with his new life and new stepfather in Southern California, 13-year-old Trav runs away to the small town in Minnesota where his dad grew up and his grandmother lives. He quickly learns why his mother won’t talk about his father, who died before he was born. Suspected of having robbed a local bank, the man disappeared in a storm, his boat washed up on an island in the lake. Everyone figures Trav knows where the money is, a theory confirmed when some of the burgled money turns up in local stores after his arrival. Trav manages to convince neighbor kid Kenny and his hot cousin Iz of his innocence, and together, they try to figure out where the loot might have been stashed and who has sent Trav a threatening note. Careful plotting and end-of-chapter cliffhangers add to the suspense. The first-person narration suggests that Trav’s imagination has been fed by too much television, but the imagined threats become frighteningly real as the story progresses. Trav’s voice is believable, Bullard’s Minnesota setting full of convincing detail, and the boy’s hesitant romantic efforts add a pleasant embellishment.
A promising fiction debut. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-544-02900-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
The depiction of the time is well done, and while the girls are caught up in the difficulties of adults, their resilience is...
A flight from New York to Oakland, Calif., to spend the summer of 1968 with the mother who abandoned Delphine and her two sisters was the easy part.
Once there, the negative things their grandmother had said about their mother, Cecile, seem true: She is uninterested in her daughters and secretive about her work and the mysterious men in black berets who visit. The sisters are sent off to a Black Panther day camp, where Delphine finds herself skeptical of the worldview of the militants while making the best of their situation. Delphine is the pitch-perfect older sister, wise beyond her years, an expert at handling her siblings: “Just like I know how to lift my sisters up, I also knew how to needle them just right.” Each girl has a distinct response to her motherless state, and Williams-Garcia provides details that make each characterization crystal clear.
The depiction of the time is well done, and while the girls are caught up in the difficulties of adults, their resilience is celebrated and energetically told with writing that snaps off the page. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-076088-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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