Teenreads.com -- BLACKTHORN WINTER by Kathryn Reiss

BLACKTHORN WINTER
Kathryn Reiss
Harcourt Children's Books
Mystery
ISBN: 9780152061098
348 pages

Juliana Martin-Drake has enough on her mind. Her mother has dragged her and her brother and sister halfway around the world in an effort to "find herself" as an artist. Not only does Juliana miss her dad, she worries that her parents will be getting a divorce. Then there's trying to fit into the artist's colony at Blackthorn.

Everything is different in England. Juliana misses the California sunshine, along with her private American bathroom and her gregarious friends. She doesn't know anyone in England; when she speaks to them, she only understands about half of what they're saying. And of course there's the tiny matter of her memory. Juliana can't remember anything from the time before she was adopted, at age 5. It has always bothered her, but --- somehow here in England, separated from almost everything familiar --- it seems even worse.

So the last thing she needs is to be involved in a murder mystery. But when someone bashes neighboring artist Liza Pethering on the back of the head and then leaves her in a river to drown, Juliana finds herself caught up in the drama. Everyone else seems relieved and almost happy when the police arrest the ne'er-do-well of the neighborhood, Simon Jukes. But to Juliana, things just don't add up. There are so many other people with better motives: Liza's henpecked husband; the local patron of the arts who's enraged by the cruel portrait Liza painted of her; the girl Liza recently fired, whose response was to wish Liza dead; and maybe even Juliana's own mother.

Despite mysterious warnings to back off, Juliana continues to investigate. The closer she gets to a solution, the more difficult she finds it to shake the feeling that this is all tied up with her own mysterious past. Will she succeed in unraveling the mystery before the murderer decides to make her the next victim?

BLACKTHORN WINTER is an exciting combination of a novel about coming-of-age angst and a mystery. Kathryn Reiss does a good job of devoting equal time to each aspect, and of integrating the two themes into a great read. With believable characters, a fascinating setting and a compulsively readable mystery, BLACKTHORN WINTER is a wonderful addition to anyone's library.

--- Reviewed by Paula Jolin

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