From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–Broken into its components, this book promises a great mystery: a teenaged heroine with tragic buried memories beginning to resurface; a cold, windswept winter in a colorless English seaside town; a pushy, witchlike busybody mysteriously murdered; a cute guy next door; and two warmly lovable younger siblings for comic relief. Unfortunately, the author has difficulty balancing the plot, the necessary explanations of background, a mysterious tone, and her narrators character. I have a memory problem, Juliana confesses, but it takes another 58 pages of meeting new characters and having strange, weird feelings before she finally tells readers what the problem is and muses upon why she has it. The wonderfully visceral setting and intriguing cast of characters almost make up for the baffling narrator, but ultimately the link between the two simultaneous mysteries proves tenuous, and the identity of the murderer no mystery at all.
–Rhona Campbell, Washington DC Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
The last place fifteen-year-old Juliana wants to be is halfway around the world in Blackthorn, England, an idyllic seaside artists' colony her mother has dragged her off to while her parents weather a trial separation. Juliana misses her father terribly and doesn't understand why her mother needs to travel so far to resurrect her artistic self, which she claims to have lost in the marriage. Soon after they arrive in the tiny village of Blackthorn, the artists' colony is set on its heels by the murder of one of its own. Juliana feels compelled to solve the crime, but she is shocked and frightened when it seems that clues in the matter are hitting a little too close to home. Can she figure out who the murderer is before anyone else--herself included--gets hurt?
