A CLUSTER OF SEPARATE SPARKS

Joan Aiken out of period disguise resembles Joan Aiken and Mary Stewart (this takes place on a Greek island where the heroine is accused of reading her) and the story is such an overwhelming overstatement that it's best to focus on the scenery. Namely about a young woman, Georgia Marsh, a teacher of disturbed children, who comes to the school for difficult youngsters run by attractive Mr. Capranis where she's promptly shut up in the pottery kiln. It's touches such as this, along with the poison gas in the organ, which redeem the essentials (murder; an old love affair; a child who has been kidnapped and may have the remarkable mnemonic gifts of his father which make him wanted by the Chinese — no less) and give it a saving grace for those who read Joan Aiken and Mary Stewart.