October 15, 2014
This contemporary thriller opens the morning after a hurricane ravages a Massachusetts island. The storm's destroyed homes, flooded businesses, heaved sailboats onto the village green and left residents without power or ferry service. Orchestrating a community cleanup, Eliza, a lifelong resident and concerned high school senior, finds an odd letter in the island lighthouse, apparently a death threat against a girl named Bess. The letter upsets Eliza's parents; Bess was her mother's best friend. Her drowning, some feel, was no accident. Eliza (why is unclear) disregards warnings not to stir up the 25-year-old tragedy, but her investigations are stonewalled. Her classmates don't know the story, and their parents won't discuss it. Charlie, son of prominent island innkeepers, is an exception, but does the mystery interest him or is it just Eliza? Readers will find it hard to care. The struggle of the year-round islanders-rugged, working folk-to recover is a major plot driver but post-9/11 feels jarringly dated. Hurricane Katrina and FEMA are briefly referenced, but the now-familiar vocabulary and tools of emergency planning-first responders, weather radio, social networking, smartphones-are missing. Given the island's uncoordinated recovery efforts, it's fortunate that Gloucester, the bustling mainland seaport and apparently miraculously untouched by the hurricane, is just 9 miles away. A slapdash tale marred by risible errors and erratic pacing. (Mystery. 12-16)
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November 1, 2014
Gr 9 Up-Eliza Elliot has always lived on Stone Cove Island, a tourist destination off the coast of Massachusetts. The island is small; year-round residents know each other and as in most small towns, change does not happen easily or often. When the island is hit by a devastating hurricane, Eliza organizes a day of clean up, volunteering to tackle the lighthouse herself. While there, Eliza finds a strange and unsettling letter, which she later learns is directly connected with a murder-an incident she has never even heard mentioned before, and which she cannot get anyone to tell her about now. The townspeople may not be talking, but Eliza is determined to find out what happened to Bess. Myers's debut has an interesting plot, is written in a language appropriate for its intended audience, and has an important theme, change, at its center. The mood and the pacing are a little off in some places, however. The characters overreact at times and the plot skips ahead now and then, creating gaps that break the flow of the work. Additionally, there is more than one loose end at its conclusion. This is a supplementary work for any strong realistic fiction collection, but avid mystery/thriller readers may find it unsatisfying and predictable.-Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson University R. M. Cooper Library, South Carolina
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 Eliza finds the cryptic letter while cleaning the lighthouse after the hurricane. Eerily filled with fragments of nursery rhymes, it reads like a warning and references a woman named Bess. But when 17-year-old Eliza asks her parents and the other longtime locals on Stone Cove Island, a removed tourist location, about Bess' disappearance 30 years ago, they mysteriously shut her down. Soon Eliza is drawn to investigate what she is told is Bess' unsolved murder. As the island recovers from the storm and Eliza uncovers more information about Bess' disappearance, she is forced to question everyone she has ever trusted and reevaluate her understanding of many local legends she has spent her life disbelieving. In her debut novel, Myers has created a cast of characters whose shortcomings feel strikingly real, and crafted a layered, suspenseful mystery that weaves in a perfect thread of romance. Once the puzzle of Bess' past is slowly solved, however, the ramifications for Eliza and her family feel glossed over. This invites hopeful wonder: Perhaps Myers will revisit the enigmatic island in later works?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)