Shadowmaker

by Joan Lowery Nixon

Overview

For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Shadowmaker from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.
 
        When Katie Gillian and her mother move from Houston to a small Texas town, they never imagine that violence and intrigue will interrupt their six-month stay. Could the two bodies found have anything to do with the newspaper articles Katie’s reporter mother is writing—or with the shadowy figures Katie has noticed lurking outside her house at night?
 
“Strong female characters[,]…affecting and fast-paced, this mystery delivers.” –Publishers Weekly
 
“Nixon deftly weaves the ordinary difficulties of a new kid in school into a suspenseful mystery…[and her] characters are interestingly complicated.” –Booklist
 
“[A] smoothly knit novel.” –Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307823502
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	09/25/2013
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Joan Lowery Nixon was the author of more than 130 books for young readers and was the only four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Best Young Adult Mystery Award. She received the award for The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore, The Séance, The Name of the Game Was Murder, and The Other Side of the Dark, which also won the California Young Reader Medal. Her historical fiction included the award-winning series The Orphan Train Adventures, Orphan Train Children, and Colonial Williamsburg: Young Americans.

Editorial Reviews

Katie and her mom have come to Kluney, Tex., to escape trouble for a while, but trouble seems to be lurking around every corner. In her career as an investigative reporter, Katie's mom has run afoul of those who don't appreciate her efforts to bring to light the illegal dumping of certain toxic wastes, and now Katie, missing her city friends and ballet lessons, unwillingly finds herself involved in a puzzle of her own--the disappearance of the only girl to have befriended her. In her usual taut, thrillingly grim style, Nixon merges mystery with moral outrage and stand-taking; she develops parallel mother-daughter investigations deftly, allowing the mysteries to intersect momentarily and then dart off on separate paths. Strong female characters deliver a mandate to question authority and to adhere to personal convictions, even in the face of threats and ridicule. Affecting and fast-paced, this mystery delivers just the right amount of shivers to satisfy without eclipsing its message. Ages 12-up. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 7-10-Eve Gillian takes a leave of absence from her job as an investigative reporter to write a novel, and she and her teenaged daughter, Katie, settle temporarily in a small, Texas seaside town. Threatening letters and spooky nighttime visitors keep mother and daughter on edge; the local sheriff isn't sympathetic; Katie begrudges leaving her Houston high school; and the townspeople fear for their jobs at the local waste disposal plant once Eve starts poking around. Then two people are murdered, and Katie uncovers a cabal of teenaged boys dedicated to petty and not-so-petty crime. A few scenes are suspenseful, but overall the mystery just isn't very mysterious. The characters are flat, except for the pitiful murdered girl so desperate for attention, and the villain isn't very ominous. The workings of the plot are too transparent and the red herrings too red. The setting is surprisingly generic and lacks a convincing sense of place. Nixon has a long string of suspenseful page-turners, but Shadowmaker is, unfortunately, not one of her stronger efforts.-Kathy Fritts, Jesuit High School, Portland, OR

School Library Journal

Katie Gillian's mother, a famous investigative journalist, is taking six months off to write a novel. In order to afford the leave, she and Katie move away from Houston (and Katie's performing-arts high school) to live in an inherited house on the Gulf Coast. Locals, young and old, aren't friendly, dance classes for Katie don't exist, and prowlers harass the isolated house at night. When Katie's mother is brought evidence of toxic waste dumping, she can't refuse to investigate. Katie finds that what's going on at the high school is related, and she struggles to understand her mother's passion for probing. Nixon deftly weaves the ordinary difficulties of a new kid in school into a suspenseful mystery. The conclusion to the waste-dumping plot comes too easily, but some of Nixon's characters are interestingly complicated.

Mary Harris Veeder

This is Nixon at her best, made even better by Stina Nielsen's spirited reading. Katie and her mother, a reporter, move to a Texas town. When her mother begins to investigate toxic waste dumping, they are terrified to discover they are being ostracized. A wonderful whodunit evolves as Katie investigates the disappearance of her new friend, Lana. Nielsen is super with adult and young voices; she excels with the unappealing nasal quality of Katie's missing friend. She bestows each character with heart and allows the adults to stand on their good points--and bad. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 01 - AudioFile