Teen Tuesday

Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion hardcover, 17 April 2012).


The summer of 1955.  The summer before Nora's final year of high school. 

Elmgrove, Maryland is a small enough town that almost everyone knows almost everyone.  Nora and her friends party in the woods before the last day of school, the day when all they do is pick up their report cards. 

Nora and Ellie, with whom she spends the night, drink more than they're accustomed to and have difficulty getting up in the morning.  So when Bobbie Jo and Cheryl drop by to walk to school with them, they aren't ready, and not wanting to wait, they go ahead without them.

When Nora and Ellie finally get to school, they are overwhelmed with good-byes and signing yearbooks, and they don't notice the absence of their friends until they're ready to go home.   As they're about to walk through the wooded park, the sound of sirens alerts them that something's going on, and when one of the boys from school starts shouting "They're dead!"  

"They" are Bobbi Jo and Cheryl, whose bodies have been found by a boy walking his dog in the woods.  Their friend Buddy, who was upset that Cheryl had broken up with him a few weeks earlier is suspected of the crime.  Nora may be the only one who believes he's innocent.

The crime changes the atmosphere of the town forever.  The parties in the woods stop.  Girls are discouraged from walking in the park, even in the daylight. 

The story is based loosely on an actual crime that occurred in 1955.  Hahn remembers it, and the way the townspeoples' behavior changed overnight.

Mary Downing Hahn, master of the young adult mystery novel has created another masterpiece.  The story is written from various points of view, but predominantly Nora's, with whom you'll identify intimately.



FTC Full Disclosure :  I borrowed this book from my local library.