Enchantment Lake

January 26, 2015
As soon as 17-year-old Francie receives a distraught phone call from her great-aunts Astrid and Jeannette in the small town of Walpurgis, Minn., she hops on a plane from New York City to check on them. But when her aunts ask her to look into their neighbors’ possible murders (Francie, an actor, once played a kid detective on a children’s TV show, and the reputation has stuck) she wonders if their nuttiness has turned to paranoia. They are certain that a local real-estate broker, who is buying up cabins to replace with a road and condo developments, is somehow to blame. As Francie delves into investigative work, interviewing neighbors and potential suspects, she also collects clues about her father’s death and her mother’s disappearance and begins to question where she herself belongs. In a departure from her previous historical fiction, Preus (West of the Moon) delivers a quick-moving mystery whose lovely descriptions of the Minnesota landscape add a pleasing layer of smalltown Midwestern atmosphere. The slightly open-ended conclusion ending will leave readers ready for a sequel. Ages 10–up.

March 1, 2015

Gr 6-10-A distressed phone call from her eccentric great aunts sends 17-year-old Francie rushing back to Enchantment Lake. Francie hasn't seen her aunts since her father died in an unexplained accident there 10 years ago. When she arrives, she finds her aunts safe but needing her help to solve the mystifying deaths of several members of the lakeside community. Are the deaths related to the resident's obstruction of a new road a mysterious personage plans to build, connecting the lakeside cabins to the rest of the world? Or are they really just accidents? Though she only briefly played a detective on TV, Francie finds herself almost unwillingly drawn into the role of sleuth. She manages to get herself into a few moderately scary situations, a few ridiculous ones, and even a couple of romantic ones. The quirky cast of characters in the community add color to this plot-driven story, though they lack much depth. The ending wraps up the main mystery nicely, while leaving just enough unanswered questions to imply a possible series continuation. VERDICT Fans of Nancy Drew and cozy mysteries will find much to appreciate in this story of a modern-day teen sleuth.-Genevieve Feldman, San Francisco Public Library

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2015
Preus, author of the Newbery Honor-winning Heart of a Samurai (2010), is known for her engrossing historical fiction. Now she changes pace and offers a mystery set in the present.Francie, 17 and fresh off a television gig in which she played a teen detective, is frantically called back to her lakeside childhood vacation home in northern Minnesota. Her two great-aunts, flaky but endearing, who own the isolated cottage, believe someone is murdering their neighbors in an effort to gain access to a large tract of real estate. They've represented Francie as a real New York detective, a lie the townspeople somewhat implausibly buy into, and she begins a halfhearted investigation. Effectively combining some mildly scary treks through the dark woods, a growing sense of peril and a dash of romance in the form of handsome Nels, this mystery will keep readers engaged even though it lacks the punch of previous works. The body count is high, but the actual deaths aren't depicted, minimizing their potential menace. When the truly malevolent surprise perpetrator is finally revealed from among a group of red herrings, the threat is swiftly eliminated; a minor mystery remains unsolved, suggesting the potential focus of the sequel. Francie may not be a real detective, but she is so confident that there's never really any doubt of her eventual success, making her good company but perhaps not riveting reading for hard-core mystery fans. (Mystery. 11-16)

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February 15, 2015
Grades 7-9 Seventeen-year-old Francie, a struggling actress in New York City, receives an enigmatic call for help from her great-aunts in northern Minnesota. She travels to their home on Enchantment Lake, where she spent her childhood summers. There she learns that older residents of this wooded community are dying of dubious accidental causes, yet the local sheriff seems disinclined to investigate. When Francie, who once played a young detective on TV, turns amateur sleuth in reality, suspects and motives seem to pop up all around her. The tension increases significantly when two more sudden deaths occur. With enough intriguing characters to fill a couple of books, readers will be entertained by the writing and puzzled by the mystery until the end. There's a distinctive Minnesotan flavor to the book as well, from the wooded lakeside setting to the death by a poisoned hot dish in a church basement. Preus, whose Heart of a Samurai (2010) was a Newbery Honor Book, offers intriguing characters, suspenseful moments, and a love interestplenty to keep readers involved.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)