Old School Bones

April 21, 2008
Hypocrisy and racism are rampant at Tolchester-Coates, a multicultural prep school outside Boston, in Peffer's downbeat third Cape Islands mystery (after 2006's Provincetown Follies, Bangkok Blues
). When black student Liberty Baker is found in her dorm bathroom with her wrists slashed, an apparent suicide, Liberty's proctor, Awasha Patterson, suspects foul play. Liberty received a crude warning note while she and Hong Kong student Gracie Liu were researching a term paper about TC's clandestine societies. “There's something evil at work in my school,” Awasha tells a detective after old bones turn up in a dorm attic. Cape fisherman Michael Decastro's prolonged probes raise suspicions about why headmaster Malcolm Sufridge (aka “Bumbledork”) suppressed accounts of the Red Tooth society and its splinter group, Club Tropical. With its stereotypical characters, familiar issues and implausible ending, this bitter tale will appeal primarily to the teen rebel crowd.

April 1, 2008
Former public defender Michael DeCastro (Provincetown Follies, Bangkok Blues, 2006) is back at work on his fathers fishing boat, too sensitive to cope with the woes of his clients. When Liberty Baker, a black scholarship student at a local prep school, commits suicide, her friends and her faculty advisor, Awasha Patterson, suspect murder. Awasha feels guilty because she turned Liberty away on the night of her death, anda friend who was working on a project with Liberty is convinced that the death was a racially motivated crime. The two girls were doing research on secret societies at the school and found evidence that some may still exist. Awasha seeks out Michael, who used to rent a room in her mothers house, and convinces him to investigate. Together they uncover a decades-old web of political intrigue and murder. Peffer has laid impressive claim to his Provincetown setting, and he effectively goes against type with his too-sensitive sleuth. A quirky, very appealing series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)