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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Austin sci-fi mystery, Nov 17 2003
New York City in the 1960s. It's a place where the sure sign of gang membership is a black leather jacket, where the worst drugs adolescents may encounter are "pot" and "acid," and where laser surgery is still the stuff of science fiction - although just barely. To the Austin family from Thornhill, Connecticut, it's simultaneously Sin City and a place where they have settled in to make a temporary home. Small Rob has ventured for the first time into a world of boys and men, by opting for a nearby cathedral's parochial school instead of going with his older sisters Suzy and Vicky. The family has taken two waifs into its bosom: Emily Gregory, their landlord's blind and motherless daughter; and Josiah "Dave" Davidson, a former gang member who reads Emily her lessons.How are Emily, Dave, Dave's father who works in the cathedral's maintenance department, the cathedral's dean, and a visiting Anglican canon connected to the research that the Austin children's father is mysteriously conducting during this year off from his country medical practice? That's the key to a mystery which Rob, Suzy, and Vicky all realize - at different times and in different ways - is threatening their family, too. L'Engle's two previous Austin books, and the one following this in the series, have Vicky as first-person narrator. I found myself missing her voice as I read, but I quickly realized why the author chose to tell this story in the third person. That approach enables us to follow the story from many different viewpoints. Having it unfold through Vicky's eyes alone would not, for this young adult thriller, produce a tale even half as satisfying. This is the first L'Engle book that I've read as an adult and found it dated. However, the story still works well on each of its various levels. I figured the mystery out before I should have, but can't say how well I might have done with it as a young teen.
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by Madeleine L'Engle
by Madeleine L'Engle
by Madeleine L'Engle
by Madeleine L'Engle
