This sparkling series starter delivers a confounding mystery, authentic historical details, and a spirited journalist.
A teenage reporter in 1920s Los Angeles investigates the death of a Hollywood director in this YA mystery.
In February 1922, 17-year-old would-be journalist Katharine Ann March gets the scoop on the sudden death by gunshot of famed Paramount Studios movie director William Desmond Taylor. Kate wants to make a name for herself and boost the flagging circulation of her father’s newspaper, and she succeeds on both counts. Often to the annoyance of the Los Angeles Police Department and her longtime friend and neighbor Nicky Masino, a recent LAPD hire, she continues to report the developing story. Lines of investigation include the last person to see Taylor alive; the wife and daughter no one knew the director had; his thieving ex-chauffeur; and more. Kate has a source, too, in her close friend Mary Miles Minter, a 19-year-old film star who had a huge crush on the late-40s Taylor. Kate’s sleuthing takes her and her best friend, Adelaide “Addy” Wells, into the sleaze and glamour of ’20s Hollywood, from speak-easies to a Paramount gala, while dodging suspicious characters—leading to a deadly alleyway encounter that leaves Kate with some explaining to do. Adams, whose previous books include a YA supernatural series, capably turns her hand to historical fiction here. Appropriately for its setting, the series opener has some wonderfully cinematic scenes that vividly evoke Roaring ’20s Hollywood, such as Kate’s flapper makeover and a food fight at the Coconut Grove. Kate is an engaging narrator, boldly wearing trousers and fearlessly poking into various anthills, while unresolved issues from her mother’s abandonment both give her depth and contribute to the story. The mystery itself is complex and satisfyingly resolved.
This sparkling series starter delivers a confounding mystery, authentic historical details, and a spirited journalist.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73713-121-2
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Spyhop Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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