After the Eclipse

May 1, 2019

In August 1999, 11-year-old Olive goes missing from the town of Bishop's Green during a solar eclipse while her big sister Cassie is supposed to be watching her. Guilt ridden, Cassie becomes an investigative journalist to make up for her mistake. In 2015, having returned to Bishop's Green to care for her ailing grandmother, Cassie dreads the upcoming solar eclipse. Then an 11-year-old girl goes missing, followed by another one, and Cassie is determined to solve the mystery and bring them home safely. Flipping between Cassie's point of view in 2015 and Olive's in 1999, the mystery unfolds slowly, bogged down by Cassie's inner torment and destructive coping mechanisms. Cassie doubts her instincts, has panic attacks, and obsesses over the seeming connection between these missing girls and her little sister's disappearance. There are multiple suspects and false leads. The narrative comes to a dramatic if predictable conclusion, and the big reveal is less than cathartic. While the premise is disturbing, the book is never graphic or sensational. VERDICT A solid purchase for libraries with mature mystery fans.-Kristen Rademacher, Marist High School, Chicago

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2019
During each of two solar eclipses, 16 years apart, an 11-year-old girl vanishes from the small town of Bishop's Green. In August 1999, it was Olive Warren, visiting her maternal grandparents with her older sister, Cassie, who was told to look after her younger sibling. But Cassie was distracted when Olive left the crowded town center for a better viewing place and was not seen again. Olive's disappearance fractured her family: Dad leaves to form a new family, Mum goes into a decline and years later commits suicide, and Cassie lives with her grandparents. In 2015, Cassie?once a journalist in London?returns to Bishop's Green to care for her widowed Gran, who has dementia. First, Grace Butler disappears before the eclipse, then Bella Kaluza disappears during the event, and Cassie?thinking this is connected to Olive?is driven to help, despite anonymous warnings to back off. Accounts of what happened to Olive are interspersed with Cassie's first-person narrative in this assured debut thriller with a superstitious bent and a tender love story at its core.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)