The Seer of Shadows

The Seer of Shadows by Avi, published by HarperCollins, 2008.

This historical fiction starts off with a photographer trying to perpetrate a fraud by putting ghost images into portraits. But, in an ironic twist, real ghosts begin to show up in the photos taken by his apprentice, Horace, the novel's first person narrarator. I won't give it all away, but there's more to it than just the ghost wandering through while the picture is snapped.

I was attracted to the novel for the similarities to my current work in progress, a mystery with a ghost revealed in photographs.

Avi's story moves along at a good pace and the plot and characters are solid. Set in New York in 1872, the language is sometimes a little formal, but nothing insurmoutable.

Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, published by Scholastic, 1997. Won the Newberry Award in 1998. It is a novel, composed of a series of poems in free verse.

I read this book primarily because it is set in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the 1930s and my next mystery is likely to take place in that location.

I just completed a four page essay dissecting the decision to focus more on an improbable, horrific accident than the natural disaster plaguing the area at the time.

I won't share that here, but I will say that this book is beautifully written. The white space on each page is reminiscent of the wide open spaces of the High Plains. Those who called that place home had a grit and tenacity that is hard to imagine in our world of creature comforts. It was a bleak time that challenged the toughest people. Severe drought, extreme temperatures, relentless dust storms and food shortages weakened bodies and drained spirits.

To this mix, Hesse added a tragic accident that centers around the main character's pregnant mother mistaking a pail of kerosene for a bucket of water. The mother dies a painful, agonizing death and the main character is badly burned. Her burns rob her, at least temporarily of the only thing that brings her joy - playing the piano.

I asked myself over and over why the author felt it necessary to heap tragedy upon hardship in a time when the simple act of breathing could be deadly.

And the Winner Is...

Okay, I'm a little bit late in posting this, but CONGRATULATIONS to Tony Abbott for winning the Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for The Postcard.

You may not believe me since I didn't get it up here ahead of time, but The Postcard was my favorite among the finalists. The story resonnated deeply with me. It was actually the first of the finalists that I read and gave me the idea of reading the others before the winners were announced.

I listened to the audio version of the book and I highly recommend it. The reading is good and the production doesn't distract from the story. (The book I'm listening to now occasionally has music in the background. It's a nice idea, but...)

On a personal note, I had a little winning excitement of my own. The opening of my middle grade mystery manuscript, Betrayed, won first place at the Oklahoma Writers Conference last weekend. Also, the opening chapters of a young adult nonfiction manuscript about tigers in the United States won first place in its division. This recognition has been an excellent motivator in getting me back for the final polish on the mystery and to consider exactly what to do next with the tiger manuscript.

Enigma: A Magical Mystery

Enigma: A Magical Mystery by Graeme Base, published by Harry Abrams, 2008.

The amazing illustrations in this book are masterpieces in themselves. Base cleverly presents several puzzles in Enigma, first the straightforward mystery withing the text, second, the clues hidden in the illustrations and finally, a secret to decode using the key at the back of the book. This decoding requires reading the story, finding a hidden clue in the picture and then turning three wheels to the correct position to unlock the decoding key. It was great fun.

This is the last Edgar finalist review in the "juvenile" category. Although this book was grouped with the others, it is definitely in a class by itself. The other finalists were all definitely middle grade novels, while this decidedly falls into the picture book category. Perhaps the Mystery Writers of America should consider adding a middle grade category or a picture book category to give these books a fair chance.

Eleven

Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff, published by Wendy Lamb Books, Random House, 2008.
I had very mixed feelings about this book. I kept asking myself why it was that I didn’t become emotionally attached to Sam, the protagonist and his new friend Caroline. Sam was likable enough and even appears to have dyslexia, something that would normally garner a reader’s sympathy. Sam discovers a newspaper clipping that said he was a missing child. He spends the book trying to figure out who he is and where he belongs.

I was also disappointed by Giff’s handling of the dyslexia. Although she does a superb job of describing it, “the words a bunch of loops and whorls that seemed to jump as Sam looked at them,” Giff misses an opportunity to really explore this topic.

I was also a little put off by they way she concludes this arc of the story. Sam decides he has to learn to read. He goes to the reading teacher who has been helping him. They talk about how much time he had spent building a castle for another class and that sometimes reading is also that hard. She says, “We’ll keep at it, work on it; we’ll really try.” I realize that she is acknowledging that he is making a commitment now too, but somehow it seemed dismissive of his learning disability. An implication that by putting some effort into it would make it go away.

This book is also a finalist for the Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America.

The Postcard

The Postcard by Tony Abbott, published by Little, Brown Young Readers, 2008.
I was captivated by the way this book switched back and forth from being a mystery to being a contemporary coming of age novel. Jason is coping with his father’s drinking, his parents failing marriage and the death of a grandmother he never knew.

While helping his father pack up Grandma’s Florida home, Jason stumbles upon a 1940s magazine with the first chapter of a hard-boiled detective story. Chapters of this Chandleresque story are interspersed with the modern story and seem to mirror real events. This proved to be an interesting technique. I wondered at times if the “adult” story was something the author had written previously and recycled.

At times, Jason and his new friend Dea appear to be in real danger, this provides a lot of tension in the story. But in the end we learn those who were following them never really intended to hurt them.

This book is a finalist for the Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America.

Cemetery Street

First The Graveyard Book, now Cemetery Street. Sounds like I'm going goth. I do have a fascination with cemeteries, but trust me. It is purely coincidental that I'm doing these two reviews back to back.

I wrote a critical essay about Cemetery Street as part of my graduate studies at Vermont College. I've included the bulk of it here.

Magic Ants to the Rescue
Writing a mystery’s conclusion may be the most difficult part. So much room exists for error, offering so many ways to disappoint the reader. A writer on deadline may scramble to wrap up the plot quickly to get the book sent to the publisher. A desperate writer will search for something, anything to solve her dilemma. Unfortunately, this can often result in rash decisions. If the author calls upon the reader to stretch too far in suspending their disbelief, the reader will feel like time was wasted on this protagonist. The reader thought this was a hero’s journey to solve the mystery and set the world right. But without careful attention, this journey may lead to nowhere. Hammering the last nail into her protagonist’s heroic coffin, Brenda Seabrooke summons up a deus ex machina to wrap up Cemetery Street.

In a fantastic twist, Seabrooke robs Courtney of the apprehension of her kidnappers. The publicity-seeking, demon-impersonating criminals who killed her brother’s puppy and locked her in a crypt are done in by organized insects. Courtney tracks down the kidnappers and chases them to their van, just as it pulls away.

The van’s doors opened at the same time. Dr. White rolled out one side, Leindorf the other. They rolled in the parking lot and screamed as they tore at their clothes (Seabrooke 184).

We learn shortly that “very angry ants” are the cause of all this rolling and screaming. As explanation, Seabrooke offers Bucky’s Halloween bag tossed in the back of the van.

Giant ants may work for Indiana Jones in South America, but Seabrooke made absolutely no mention of ants at any point in the previous 184 pages. If ants had spoiled the picnic, if Courtney had been bitten by an ant or if she had taken time to watch ants travel, then this might have had a whisper of credibility. But, as presented, it is completely fantastical.

Others may argue that this ending works. Perhaps Seabrooke was trying to counteract the darkness of the animal murder and the suspected Satanism in the book with a lighthearted approach to catching the criminals. At least a few notable people must have taken this position, Cemetery Street is a current finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Mystery presented by the Mystery Writers of America.

The first half of Cemetery Street is a tightly woven web of mystery and suspense. The reader is enchanted by Courtney, we sympathize with the challenges she faces and root for her success from the beginning. We worry about the impending danger that seems to be headed her way. But we’re confident that her wit and ingenuity will ultimately lead to justice prevailing.

We will never know if Courtney was brave enough and resourceful enough to foil the criminals because Seabrooke snatches the opportunity away from her. When writers resort to outlandish means to resolve the situation, it undermines the entire book. Although the language, character development and pacing of Cemetery Street was excellent, this disappointing ending will be the thing readers remember most about it.

Here's a book trailer for it.