Blackthorn Winter

January 30, 2006
Narrator Juliana Martin-Drake, 15, feels "Nothing is the way it should be." Her mother has brought Juliana and her nine-year-old siblings from their California home to England while she and their father have a "trial separation." Blackthorn, a picturesque artists' colony by the sea, should be an idyllic spot, but Juliana feels the loss of her father deeply. Upon her arrival, she begins to sense a strange smell and to hear repeatedly a voice in her head ("Wake up, please wake up—oh no—help! Help! Come quick!
"). Within days, one of the artists is found murdered. Juliana believes that the police have too quickly arrested one of the village "lager louts" and thinks she may have found a clue to point them in the right direction. Reiss (Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge
) peppers the narrative with colorful British vocabulary and details of claustrophobic village life. Through Juliana's narrative, readers learn that she was adopted and likely born in England; memory flashbacks return to her, and the author plants clues about the recent murder and suggests its connection to an earlier death in the community. The memories of her past point her to further clues that add up to a suspenseful and satisfying climax. Ages 12-up.