Gravestone

Gr 9 Up—In the second installment (2011) of Travis Thrasher's "Solitary Tales" series, Chris Buckley is trying to sort out what really happened on New Year's Eve. Jocelyn, the girl he loved and saw murdered by a group of hooded figures, is believed by just about everyone else in Solitary, NC, to have moved away with her mother. Chris's confusion about what is real and what is part of the web of evil that seems to cover the remote town he and his mother now live in grows as people give him an endless stream of mixed messages. Whenever Chris thinks he has a handle on who is trustworthy, something happens to knock him off-kilter again. Can he trust Jared who claims to be his cousin? Can he rely on Kelsey, the shy blond in his art class? What about Iris, the enigmatic elderly woman who hires him to work at her remote mountain inn on weekends? Kirby Heyborne does an excellent job of differentiating each character's voice and with variations of the Southern accent. His soft narration provides the perfect counterpart to the building terror and suspense that makes this a listen not for the squeamish. Since so much of what makes this a great book has its roots in the first volume in the series, Solitary (2010, both David C. Cook), listeners should read or listen to that title first. These titles are considered "Christian Fiction" and the importance of belief and faith is often discussed.—John Clark, Hartland Public Library, ME