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Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Publisher: William Morrow

Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader

Everyone feels pulled back their true home—and that may not be the place they spent the longest time, but it will surely be the place where they had the deepest experiences.  Rebekkah Barrow lived in Claysville for only four years, but it’s had a long-lasting effect on her.  She comes back to the town, after nearly 10 years away, for her adopted grandmother’s funeral.  Even before the bad news arrived, she was feeling itchy-footed and eager to be gone from San Diego.  She packs up her cat and catches the red-eye for the little southern town, never suspecting what awaits her.

Grandma Maylene didn’t just die, she was killed.  The town chooses to believe that it was a wild animal attack, but as more of the same sort of deaths occur, it becomes clear to Rebekkah that something evil is afoot.  Byron Montgomery, the man who loves her but whom she can’t love back due to the guilt she feels about her dead sister, takes Rebekkah down into his cellar and through a door into another world.

In that strange, frightening but curiously attractive Other Place, Rebekkah learns why she felt the tug back to Claysville, and what she’ll have to do now she’s here, and why there’s something stronger than love or death between Byron and herself.  Byron is the Undertaker, the one who gives safe passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead—and she herself is the Graveminder, the one who carries out the rituals to keep the dead in their graves and prevent  lost and murderous spirits from harming the living. 

Claysville is the very embodiment of the line, “I have a covenant with Death.” You enter here at your peril.

This is a scary, almost believable story that should keep the reader awake well into the small hours.

Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

Publisher: Minotaur Books       

Reviewed by Jim Sells, New Mystery Reader

Conway Sax is not your typical hero of a story. He is a skilled auto mechanic. He is a reformed alcoholic. He is a convicted felon who served time for manslaughter.

Sax overcame his alcoholism thanks to a support group known as the Barnburners. As well as providing moral support against alcoholism, the Barnburners give help to members against abusive spouses and other bullies in the world.

Tander Phigg is a Barnburner. Phigg asks Sax to get his prized Mercedes back from an unscrupulous auto shop owner. Phigg is an obnoxious heel, but a promise is a promise. There is more to the shop than meets the eye. When Sax goes to confront Phigg with the facts, he finds Phigg hanging from the pipes of the shack that was serving as his home instead of the river front mansion that Phigg had bragged about.

With a cast of suspects, Sax begins to unravel what he sees as the murder of Phigg rather than a  suicide. Ulfelder shows a flare for storytelling with a short, rapid-fire writing style reminiscent of the great mystery writers of yesteryear.

Spider Web by Earlene Fowler

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover

Reviewed by Robin Thomas, New Mystery Reader

Benni Harper’s stress lever is “through the roof.” She is dealing with the busy routine as  curator of the San Celina folk art museum. Adding to her stress, Benni is the coordinator of the first Memory Festival, a celebration of the memories of loved ones and past experiences. As a historian Benni copes with the additional stress because the capturing of memories through photographs, oral history, scrapbooking and crafts is priceless. As a result of the Memory Festival, Benni learns a great deal more about the past by capturing the memories of members of the Coffin Star Quilt Guild. Unexpected Benni learns of their involvement in war tracing back to WWII and moving forward to the Vietnam War. Benni documents the rich history of the WWII U.S. Army and Navy Nurse Corp who cared for the wounded, were captured by the enemy and spent a great deal of time in prison camps. Those nurses were called the “Angels of Bataan” and their contribution to history is not well known but due to the Memory Festival Benni has some excellent material to contribute.

Benni’s husband, Gabe Ortiz, San Celina Chief of Police, is also dealing with added stress and the repressed memories of war that have come to the surface to haunt him. A sniper is on the loose and is targeting policemen. Gabe feels helpless because in spite of his best efforts he has no clues and the sniper is clearly toying with the emotions of the townsfolk and the police force.

Spider Web is the 15^th book in the Benni Harper series. Earlene Fowler does a masterful job of weaving wartime experiences, the challenges of dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the anxiety of a sniper whose targeting policeman into the ongoing series plotline of Benni’s friends, family and in particular the members of the Coffin Star Quilt Guild. Spider Web is a touching, well-written story of memories, the strength to overcome adversity and the fear that everyone is at risk especially those who are near and dear to Benni.

Cherry Beach Express by R.D. Cain

Publisher: ECW Press

Reviewed by Jim Sells, New Mystery Reader

Steve Nastos is a detective in the sex crimes unit of the Toronto police department. He is a tough and honest cop. That earns him some friends and many enemies. However, his career does not prepare him for the molestation of his daughter by her dentist or what follows.

The pedophile dentist is murdered. Nastos is charged with the crime. Perhaps this not surprising, but the zest of the prosecution and willingness of former colleagues to frame him, shocks even the cynical Nastos. Suddenly Nastos is having to rely upon the help of a mob lawyer and a restaurant owner with questionable business partners to find justice.

Cain has been a cop and could have produced another tedious police procedural. Instead, he provides many a twist or turn and a healthy dose of human emotion to create a work that is hard to put down.

A Conflict Of Interest by Adam Mitzner

Publisher: Gallery Books

Reviewed by Ray Palen for New Mystery Reader 

Adam Mitzner’s first novel, A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, has already drawn comparison to the works of both Patricia Highsmith and Scott Turow.  High praise indeed --- and more than enough to pique my interest in reading this debut effort.

What Mitzner has accomplished with A CONFLICT OF INTEREST is creating a legal thriller combo that does indeed call to mind Scott Turow’s classic novel, PRESUMED INNOCENT, as well as the earlier works of John Grisham.  Unexpected plot twists, legal intrigue and moral complications abound in this page-turning thriller.

Criminal defense attorney, Alex Miller, is saddened by the death of his father and flies down from his home in NYC to attend his father’s wake in Florida.  It is at the wake that he meets with a long-time friend of his father’s named Michael Ohlig.  Alex is instantly struck by Ohlig and his intense mannerisms.  He is most curious because he is the one old friend of his parents at the wake that he has never previously met.

When Alex’s mother introduces them, the mysterious Ohlig tells Alex he is well aware of his legal prowess and wishes to speak with him about a private matter.  They do not speak further at the wake, but Ohlig does fly up to NYC to meet with Alex in his office.  It turns out that Ohlig runs a successful investment firm and they have recently been accused of illegally pushing a ‘dog’ stock on their clients in order to reap a large reward.  With corporate greed being under intense scrutiny in the current economic environment, Alex and Ohlig recognize that there will not be many jurors to have sympathy with an investment firm that pulled a ‘Madoff’ on their own investor clients.

Alex and his colleague, Abby, prepare the defense for Ohlig.  As much as the prosecution wants to nail Ohlig --- they may have over-stepped their boundaries in their desire to nail the investment banker.  Alex receives an unmarked packet that contains an audio tape that shows the key witness for the prosecution --- Ohlig’s second in command --- has accepted money from the feds to save himself and falsely testify against Ohlig and the rest of their firm.  However, things are not nearly as easy as this apparent gift of new evidence seem to be. 

Alex has several conflicts going on --- both internal and external.  He has been suspicious as to why Ohlig insisted that Alex not tell his mother that he is representing him in this criminal case (of course she finds out). He also finds himself starting an illicit affair with

his co-worker, Abby --- knowing full well the moral implications this creates for his marriage and employment as Abby is being considered for a partnership with their firm.  The height of deception occurs when Alex finds evidence that Michael Ohlig had been having an affair with his own mother, dating back well before his father passed away.

Before the Ohlig trial is finished, Alex receives tragic news.  His mother’s body has been found washed up on a local beach in Florida --- a drowning victim and apparent suicide.  Alex flies down to Florida to meet with the local authorities.  He refuses to believe his mother capable of taking her own life --- and there is no suicide note.  Ohlig instantly comes to mind as a suspect and Alex fully believes he may have murdered his mother. How can Alex continue to represent someone that has torn his family apart and possibly taken the life of his own mother?

Alex is successful in his defense of Ohlig in the investment fraud trail.  Immediately following the verdict, the prosecutor and a team of law enforcement officials arrest Ohlig for the murder of Alex’s mother.  The second phase of the novel begins as Alex’s life is turned upside down.  Returning to work after a brief leave of absence following the Ohlig trial, he finds himself peremptorily dismissed by his firm due to the disclosure of his affair with Abby.  Alex now must face his wife and confess his indiscretions.  He must also head down to Florida to testify for the prosecution in the murder trail of Michael Ohlig.

The novel loses a little bit of steam in the last act --- but the revelation of more plot twists and some serious morale breaches by a few of the characters that more than make up for this.  The end result is a fine legal thriller that does not fall into the traps of recent novels in this genre which infuse their plots with unbelievable turns and surprises that are legally and physically implausible.  Mitzner knows his stuff and A CONFLICT OF INTEREST will hopefully become the start of additional intelligent legal thrillers.

Pumped for Murder by Elaine Viets

Publisher: Penguin Group

Reviewed by Robin Thomas, New Mystery Reader

The Queen of the “Dead-End” job is back with a new wrinkle; Helen Hawthorne and her hubby Phil are starting a private investigation business along with marital bliss. With the help of their landlady Coronado Investigations has its first two cases and their business is underway. One of the cases involves a wife who thinks that her now “buff” husband is cheating on her with someone at the health club he attends. To make matters worse the wife was the one who purchased the health club membership for her husband. Helen takes the lead on this case. For those followers of this series, taking a deep cleansing breath right now is strongly recommended in order to overcome the shock that Helen may have had her last dead-end job. Helen applies and is hired for an administrative position at the health club in order to maintain surveillance on the husband. So Helen’s string of “dead-end” jobs continues and she is immersed in the world of beautiful bodies, emotions laced with steroids and murder. While Helen works the case of the cheating husband, Phil has the lead on a cold case that he fears will lead to more heartache than answers for his client.

Pumped for Death is a wildly entertaining cozy mystery that provides a view into the world of the ultrafit. Elaine Viets has avoided the trap of boredom in this series with the introduction of new beginnings; a marriage and the launching of a private investigation business, while still maintaining the series central theme of the “dead-end” job. Pumped for Death is an addictively fun read that I highly recommend to followers of the series and cozy mystery lovers who are looking for a new adventure.

The Burning Lake by Brent Ghelfi

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press   

Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader

Getting a much-deserved reputation for very readable books, in a wide variety of genres, Poisoned Pen Press is now home to Brent Ghelfi’s antihero Alexei Volkavoy.  When I reviewed Ghelfi’s first Volk novel in 2007, I said  “Alexei Volkavoy reminds one of the human-machine mutants, the Borg, from Star Trek.  He has dealt in death and horror for so long there is almost no humanity left in him, and what there is, he and others seem to view as an aberration.”

Volk hasn’t warmed up much in this fourth volume of his adventures, but at least this time his motivation is more human.  He’s on the trail of the killers of Katarina Mironova, aka Kato, a crusading journalist who has been found murdered.  Kato was one of the few people ever to get close to Volk.  It was she who got under the hard skin of the assassin and made him look at the country he claimed to be defending, and see the corruption and misery.  Just before she died, Kato brought to Volk’s attention something she called “Slow Motion Chernobyl”.  Nuclear waste is piling up in enormous amounts, and silently poisoning the land and people near it—and not so near.

Volk is determined to track down Kato’s killer, but all he has to go on is a clue about a shadowy Frenchman, and an American named Stone.  At first it appears Volk won’t be able to follow the leads, because his employer, the General, has work for him.  Fortunately it dovetails with Volk’s mission to find Kato’s killer.  His search first takes him to Lake Karachay, “the most polluted and dangerous spot on earth”.  (This is a real place: Google it and be prepared for nightmares.)  Later he goes to the United States, and then Mexico, and meets many dangerous and unsavoury people, on both sides of the, ahem, ‘law’.

If you know Volk, you know he won’t give up until he comes face to face with his prey, and achieves his mission—but the price he pays is more than most of us could contemplate, never mind achieve.

Ghelfi is still using the annoying literary device of writing in the present tense, but that doesn’t seem to bother most people.  I find it suitable to book reviews, but wearying for full-length novels, but that’s no doubt a matter of taste.  What isn’t in question is Ghelfi’s skill as transmitting the bleakness of the modern Russia, the chilling possibilities of what lies beneath our modern world, and the potential for silent death around every corner.  Brrr!  One would like to pretend this is just a Brothers Grimm tale, but…..

The Gods of Greenwich  by Norb Vonnegut

Publisher: Minotaur Books   

Reviewed by Jim Sells, New Mystery Reader

Jimmy Cusack is the son of a plumber who left the working class world behind to rise in the realm of high finance and investment. He worked to learn the craft at a financial giant and then struck out on his own. Market shifts destroy his hedge fund investment company.

Cy Lesser is the stuff of legends. He goes from a poor kid to one of most successful hedge fund mangers. Lesser makes staggering amounts of money while others lose or fail.

Now Cusack accepts a job offer from Lesser.  It seems like the opportunity for Cusack to save his personal world. Yet, there is something at work behind the scenes in Lesser’s life. Mysterious phone calls to Lesser trouble his wife. Cusack wonders at an investor needing a personal bodyguard. The fun is seeing how it will unfold. Then there is the mysterious woman who works as nurse and moonlights as an assassin

Creating sympathetic characters that worry over $24,000 mortgage payments is difficult, but Vonnegut has done it. Watching such men maneuver through a world based upon net worth measured in the billions and house prices in the millions is an interesting journey. The sense of a storm brewing just beyond the horizon is intriguing and makes for an entertaining read.

The Jefferson Key Steve Berry

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Reviewed by Ray Palen, New Mystery Reader

What if all of the U.S. Presidential assassination and assassination attempts were part of the same plot?

It is this supposition that provides the background for Steve Berry’s latest historical thriller starring his favorite lead character, Cotton Malone, entitled THE JEFFERSON KEY.  Allegedly, the founding fathers of our country in an effort to give thanks to the Barbary Pirates that assisted them in several skirmishes including the Revolutionary War, were written into the U.S Constitution by Thomas Jefferson.  The two pages supposedly give certificate of marque to these pirates and allow them to continue operating independently as they aid the United States in various missions.

However, when President Andrew Jackson survives and assassination attempt when the person pointing the gun at him suffered two consecutive misfires, he changed history.  Jackson suspected that the pirates (or Commonwealth as they later came to be known) were behind the assassination attempt.  To punish them, President Jackson removed the two pages of the Constitution that gave free reign to the pirates and hid them. In their place, he placed a cipher code that was created by Thomas Jefferson.  This cipher is so difficult that no one has been able to decode it up until present day.

It as at this point that we are introduced to the ancestors of the original Barbary Pirates, representing four families and spear-headed by a man named Hale.  They are out to get their name cleared and will stop at nothing to either decode the Jefferson cipher or find the original two pages hidden by Andrew Jackson.  When an assassination plot to kill current President Daniels is foiled by none other than Cotton Malone --- the excitement begins!

Enjoying his first exclusively U.S. bound adventure, Cotton Malone teams with his girlfriend and fellow agent, Cassiopeia Vitt, to race around the nation trying to foil the plot of the Commonwealth and find break the cipher before their fellow pirates can get to it.  Malone goes after the original pages hidden by Jackson while Vitt is headed down south to the mansion home/castle owned by the Hale family where he may be holding fellow agent Stephanie Nelle. 

Berry further complicates this puzzle of a novel by throwing in a secret relationship between the President’s Chief of Staff and the first lady along with another plot-line where a long-time rival agent of Cotton Malone’s is battling him for the same missing pages that Jackson hid.  Will the modern-day pirates succeed and reclaim the right that was promised to them centuries earlier before Malone, Vitt and company can stop them?

It’s this question that will keep the pages turning.  While THE JEFFERSON KEY is far from being the best of the Cotton Malone adventures, it is a reliable and engaging thriller.  Berry always knows how to dig up a long-lost historical mystery and build a substantial and exciting plot around it and THE JEFFERSON KEY is no different.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Knopf

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

When a young boy realizes his mother is missing, initially there’s not a lot of panic concerning her disappearance as most are willing to write it off as just another housewife’s discontent leading her to parts unknown.  As for the snowman left inexplicably in the yard wrapped with the woman’s scarf? Well, surely the kids from the neighborhood left that as a prank.  But Nordic investigator Harry Hole has his doubts when yet another body of a woman is found.  And despite the demons from his own past, he’s determined to connect the cases of now with a case unsolved from years before; a case that left one investigator dead and just might lead to the same conclusion this time around. 

Having read the previous Harry Hole novels, I was expecting something great, and I was not disappointed.  Very few authors seem to get better in their later novels, but Nesbo manages to do just that.  Finding anything wrong with this intense and suspenseful novel will be any reader’s greatest challenge.  Filled with fully realized characters,  especially the main character  whose ability to bring any and all emotions to the surface with both a sense of disarming grace and an unsettling unease, add even more to this great read.  And then there’s the clues Nesbo leaves for the readers: clues that are ambiguous enough to lead down false trails, but also strong enough that those who get them will be satisfied at the end, nodding their heads and saying “Yeah, I knew it was him.”   

This book has it all: a cold and wintry atmosphere, characters who rise above the norm in the most unexpected ways, and a plot that keeps you guessing.  Easily one of the best books out so far this year.

Dead Of Wynter by Spencer Seidel

Publisher: Publishing Works/Perseus Books           

Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader

The death of her father brings a reluctant Alice Wynter back to her grim and cold roots, a small town in Maine where her mother and twin brother still live.  At least, she thinks her brother Chris still lives there: he’s disappeared.

Probably Alice would have found a way to avoid the visit if she hadn’t been having some marital troubles at the time her father died.   Her unsympathetic rather self-absorbed husband has irritated and angered her, so Alice packs a bag and drives to Maine.  No sooner is she there than she is nearly overwhelmed by memories of the past, of the life she fled and has tried not to think of for the past 20 years.

Jackie Ruth, Alice’s mother, is obviously hiding some unpleasant secret, but neither Alice nor the local police can pry it from her.  The police are sure Jackie knows where Chris is, and they want to discuss his father’s death, which now appears to be murder, not suicide.  Chris and his father had a strange, strong bond that wasn’t based on love, but rather on a shared alcoholism and something else, some secret that Alice doesn’t know, but begins to learn more about as she sinks back into the depressing world of Redding, Maine.  There’s one bright spot in Alice’s return: she meets her former boyfriend Michael, now a widower, and they begin to reconstruct a relationship.

A violent attack on Jackie suddenly makes Alice realise where Chris must be hiding.  Can she reach him before Jackie’s attacker does?  Hurtling through the icy wastes on a snowmobile, Alice rushes to her brother’s side, oblivious of the extreme danger they are both in.  Michael contacts the police officer who’s trying to get to the bottom of who killed Alice’s father, and the two of them set off in pursuit, only to run into a lot more than they are able to cope with.

This is a grim and violent story, which examines in great detail the dynamics of young male outsiders who gravitate to each other and find pleasure in destruction.  As well, it’s the story of a family that barely deserves the name, and how occasionally a member of such a group can escape—but not permanently.

This is not a book to give a friend who’s in rehab for any serious problems, and the sort of people who most need to read it probably won’t.  This is the author’s first published work; it will be interesting to see what he comes up with next.

Sixkill: A Spenser Novel by Robert B. Parker

Publisher: Putnam

Reviewed by Don Crouch, New Mystery Reader

A lot of stuff happens in Sixkill. It’s a fairly action-packed and standard chapter of clearly the greatest series in the history of the genre. And it’s also impossible, at this point, to talk about without the context of the author’s passing early last year.

Sixkill is described on the flap as “the last Spenser novel completed by Robert B. Parker”.  A reasonable mind could take that to mean there will be more, perhaps, and that it will completed by someone else. Amazon is already taking pre-orders on a Jesse Stone novel written by the guy that does the Selleck TV-movies. So clearly there are plans. But, well, you know. Not the same.

Point being, we should take no finality poignancy from the events in Sixkill, as it was clearly not meant to provide any. But poignant is exactly what Sixkill becomes. Its point is redemption/renewal and it’s made in classic Parker style, going back to Early Autumn in more than one way in telling the story of one Zebulon Sixkill.

Z, as he comes to be called, is a Cree Indian bodyguard that Spenser puts a beat-down on while commencing the novel’s case: the death of a young girl in Z’s client’s hotel room. Spenser is brought into the case by Capt. Martin Quirk, whom you’ve met.

Quirk is pretty sure that one Jumbo Nelson, Hollywood Miscreant/Icon, is being railroaded for murder, so he asks Spens to sniff around and see what stinks. Enter Rita Fiore, who happens to be defending Jumbo, and the stage is set for what Parker did better than just about anyone.

After Z gets canned by Jumbo for getting whupped, he consults Spenser, who agrees to help train him as a mechanism to among other things, get his help solving the case. Parker inserts episodes from Z’s early years as Z and Spenser start training at Henry Cimoli’s gym, among other locations.  Of course, it’s all about Z finding himself. And in Zebulon Sixkill, Parker creates a fascinating character, walled-off like a supermax prison.  The fun in watching Spenser, with help from Susan Silverman, of course, re-introduce Z with his real self carries its own thrills.

There’s plenty of regular thrills here as well. Parker stages a couple of great fist-fights and brings in some other new creepy dudes as well. Lots of cameos by  the dangerous types who have helped Spens out in the past....except for, well, Hawk.  Yeah, he’s still in East Somewhere, so folks looking for those two hamming it up will have to look elsewhere. (Try A Catskill Eagle.) The last act moves really fast, with a gut-wrenching final showdown that’s among Parker’s best.

With Sixkill, Parker provides another solid chapter in the saga. Better than some, worse than others. No earth-shattering changes, and lots of Spenser/Susan navel-gazing. But it still feels great to read.

We miss him already.

Knock Down by Sarah Graves

Publisher: Bantam

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

Once upon a time, Jacoba Tipster was what could be euphemistically called a "money manager" for the mob.  In less than nice terms, she laundered money in NYC for some of the biggest and baddest criminals around.  But it's been years since her crimes by association have affected her life after her move to Eastport, Maine where she spends her time with the endless renovations on her Victorian home and taking care of her unique and wonderful family members.   But now some of her not so proudest moments are about to come back to haunt her in the form of a vengeful presence who was hit by the fallout of her many previous bad decisions on the 4^th of July., and surviving this new attack will mean facing the past that she thought was long behind her.

Graves has provided many mysteries set in the idyllic island of Eastport, Maine, and they've been interesting and consistently engaging.  But this latest should please fans even more with its insights into Jacobia's past.  Finally having to face the decisions she made long ago and the person she once was should bring fans running, as it brings in how she came to be where and who she is now.

However, while, yes, there are many recriminations from the past running through Jake's head, it seems that the reconditioning of her porch is more important at times.  Her regrets are many, but not as deeply immediate as one might hope, at least until the final fallout strikes her heavy and hard.  And when combined with the odd, and not quite realistic, scenes in the book where she is left alone to deal with this fall-out, with her friends and family members running off to apparently more serious matters, readers might have difficulty believing some of the events that ensue. 

Regardless, all in all, most readers will find this an interesting and suspenseful read that provides a great deal of background in Jake's past and her regrets that drive her towards constant renewal, be it a house or better relations with her friends and family.      

The White Devil by Justin Evans

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers   

Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader    

“Facts are the long way round to Truth,” Piers Fawkes tells his troubled student Andrew Taylor.  This epigram isn’t much comfort to a boy who’s convinced that he’s being haunted by the ghost of one of Lord Byron’s lovers.  Fawkes believes Andrew about the ghost, and he believes it is dangerous—but he can’t resist trying to find out more about it in order to flesh out the play he’s writing about Byron.

Andrew has been sent to one of England’s premier boys’ schools by his father, who wants his son to have something that looks better on his school record than “doesn’t apply himself, has discipline issues.”  To hear Andrew’s father, you’d think he’d been selling stolen Glocks in the playground. The man is desperate for the boy to get into a good university, and has paid out some serious money to Harrow to take him in and polish him up.  (This is a work of fiction; surely such things couldn’t happen in real life!)

Andrew is supposed to study hard, keep his head down, and serve out his year abroad without getting into trouble.  It’s a difficult request: he’s been dropped into a new world where even the words don’t mean what they do elsewhere.  Just getting on top of the Harrow slang is a challenge, never mind ‘fitting in’ with a totally new tribe of unfriendly natives.

Andrew makes one friend, Theo, who becomes his guide and eases the misery of the first few weeks.  He also starts a sort of relationship with Persephone Vine, the housemaster’s daughter, the only girl at school.  It’s a prickly sort of relationship, but it has potential to become something more, Andrew thinks. 

Very suddenly, Theo dies, and another boy becomes critically ill.  Andrew comes under suspicion as the new boy, and is forced to have tests that he knows won’t show anything—he’s certain the source of infection is the ghost of the white-haired boy, the one who loved Byron and who’s been invading Andrew’s dreams and sometimes his waking life.

Author Evans has drawn on his own year at Harrow for much of the background that makes this story so convincing.  It’s a murder mystery with a difference, and has some particularly good phrases scattered through it: “he was the human equivalent of an old manuscript,” describes a librarian perfectly.