Zhany, Kat. The Emperor’s Riddle.

Zhany, Kat. The Emperor’s Riddle. Simon & Schuster/Aladdin  2017  256p  $16.99      Uncorrected Proof  ISBN 978-1-4814-7862-5  ms  Adventure, Mystery  VG

Mia was not excited about leaving her friends to visit China, her ancestral home, but she is excited about spending time with her favorite aunt.  Shortly after their arrival in China, Mia finds that Aunt Lin is gone, but Mia is sure it is not willingly.  Solving a map riddle hidden on the back of an ancient painting seems to be the only way to find her aunt.  Mostly on their own, Mia and her brother Jake work their way through the riddles involving famous landmarks around the town.  Each clue leads them closer to finding a treasure hidden over 500 years ago.  During the search, Mia finds more connections to her family and her ancestry.
 

The novel is filled with exciting action and often danger, but the location is completely foreign to most readers.  Some of the information about customs and foods will be better comprehended by older readers.  This title does involve a culture and history completely unknown to most American middle-grade readers. Publisher places this title at grades 3-7.  The exotic locale and culture might be better placed at grades 5-8.  Good purchase but possibly limited audience.

Summary: On a family trip to China, Mia and her brother solve a riddle mystery to both rescue her Aunt and find a treasure that has been hidden for 500 years. Publisher says grades 3-7, but maybe it's more 5-8.

Hidden treasure-Fiction                               ----Joan Theal

McClintock, Norah . Trial By Fire.

McClintock, Norah .  Trial By Fire.  Orca  2016  231p  $10.95     ISBN 978-1-4598-0936-9    ms  Conflict  VG     

In this new Riley Donovan mystery, McClintock brings the issue of prejudice to her plot in a small-town setting where the issue of rightful ownership of a farm comes to the forefront.  When a barn is set on fire and its owner nearly dies, dons her detective hat and examines all possibilities.  Along with a cast of characters that is certain to entertain, Riley uses her wits and all of her sleuthing abilities to solve the crime.  Her Aunt Ginny has accepted a job as a police detective in a nondescript small town where a farm recently went on the seller’s block due to a lack of funds to keep it going.  Nearly half the town resents the new owner, as much for his ethnicity as for the fact that they believe he “stole” the farm from its rightful owner.  Naturally, Mr. Goram tries to protect his new property, and this leads to a potentially deadly fire as the inciting incident.  Intrigue grows when Mr. Goram’s son, who is not above suspicion, returns from Afghanistan to look after his father.  Riley meets local teen Ashleigh, and the two hit it off.  At a party Riley meets several teens with whom she has had a struggle, and they, too, become suspects. As luck has it, Riley learns that a lovely bamboo arrangement has been delivered to Mr. Goram’s hospital room from a local florist, and she traces the buyer to the local bank. From that point on, she is clearly on the path to solving the crime.

McClintock’s mysteries have solid plots, interesting characters and appropriate numbers of mysterious clues for young readers to figure out.       

Summary: Riley Donovan must figure out who set a barn on fire, nearly causing its new owner, a foreigner, to die.  Prejudice, ownership, guilt and innocence come together as a small town watches and waits.

Mystery-Fiction, Prejudice-Fiction              --Martha Squaresky

Carter, Ally. All Fall Down (Embassy Row)

Carter, Ally.  All Fall Down (Embassy Row)  Scholastic Press      2015  310p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-65474-6  jr/sr  Mystery/Detective  VG  

The author, best known for her Heist and Gallagher Girls series, now tackles a mystery involving the murder of Grace’s mother in New York City.  Grace, emotionally fragile yet gutsy in her actions, now lives with her U.S. Ambassador grandfather in Adria, Italy.  The story starts out swiftly, as Grace is filled in on diplomatic protocol by her grandfather’s secretary, humorously crashes into the Russian ambassador (quite literally), and on that first night is quickly whisked away by a teenage neighbor to an all-night party on the beach with other embassy-row teenagers.  The pace lags at times, as plot devices are put into place, including the underground tunnels, the vacant Iranian embassy that appears to be in exceptionally well-kept condition, and the many characters that populate Grace’s world.  When Grace sees the scarred man who she remembers being responsible for her mother’s death, she becomes obsessed with bringing him to justice.  Her teen friends (somewhat unbelievably) are able to bypass security at numerous embassies, hack into databases, and alternately believe in her quest and doubt her sanity.  This is obviously the first of a series, as the abrupt ending hints at her mother’s duplicitous life as a possible spy and/or keeper of ancient secrets.           

This book hints at being the first of a strong series (Embassy Row) about international espionage. Possibly it would have been better to release two books in the series at once, as this book leaves the reader puzzled and wanting more explanations, with nothing really solved. Recommended where Ally Carter books are popular.     

Summary: Grace goes to live at her grandfather’s house, an American embassy in an Italian town called Adria.  The death of her mother, which she witnessed, leads her to a whirlwind adventure to find the man responsible for it.  Intrigue, betrayal. Grades 8-12.     

Espionage-Fiction, Foreign Embassies-Fiction, Mystery-Fiction --Lois    McNicol

Hardinge, Frances. Cuckoo Song.

Hardinge, Frances.  Cuckoo Song.  Harry Abrams  uncorrected proof   2015  409p  $17.95  ISBN 978-1-4197-1480-1  ms/hs  Fantasy  E-BN

Triss is a sickly eleven-year-old child growing up in post-World War l England and is very much doted on by her parents.  Pen is Triss’s younger sister and is very jealous of all the special attention that Triss receives.  To make matters worse, the girls’ older brother has been killed in the war.

As the story begins, Triss is found coming out of a pond into which she has apparently fallen.  As the doting parents put her to bed and prepare for a new illness, Pen becomes even more difficult and vengeful.  Consequently, Triss begins having very strange symptoms, including an insatiable appetite, even for non-food items, and incidental memory loss.  She questions her symptoms and seems to become less fragile. She begins following her sinister sister Pen, who is behaving even more erratically.

In this well-written book, the adventure and suspense never stop.  The plot takes many turns that the reader never sees coming.  The relationship between the girls and the way the changes in their characters are resolved will surprise and thrill the reader.  This is definitely a thriller, and a delightfully unique fantasy novel.  Readers will not want to put this book down.

Summary: Fragile and sickly eleven-year-old Triss is found coming out of a pond, which she had apparently fallen into, and begins to exhibit strange symptoms, while mystery and revenge seem to emanate from her sinister younger sister Pen.          

Mystery-Fiction                                             --Virginia McGarvey

In the Shadows.

White, Kiersten, and Jim Di Bartolo.  In the Shadows.  Scholastic Press  2014 376p  $21.99  ISBN 978-0-545-56144-0      jr/sr   Graphic novel   VG-BN

A story of love, mystery, conspiracy, and revenge told in an alternating narrative of words and pictures and spanning centuries, In the Shadows is a collaborative effort by author Kiersten White and artist Jim Di Bartolo. White's prose follows two pairs of siblings around the turn of the twentieth century as they meet and grow close at a summer boarding house by the sea.  Di Bartolo's section follows a young man who is imprisoned and has been forcibly turned into some sort of creature who then goes on a hunt for the people who did this to him.  At first the connection between the two stories is not apparent, and switching back and forth can be tiring for the reader, particularly since there is so little dialogue in Di Bartolo's scenes (although the artwork is lovely).  Once the connection becomes apparent and the timelines converge, however, readers will find themselves speeding up, eager to learn how everything turns out.

Summary: A story of love, mystery, conspiracy, and revenge told in an alternating narrative of words and pictures and spanning centuries.                

Romance-Fiction, Mystery-Fiction                      --Bethany Geleskie