Mr. Death's Blue-Eyed Girls

Gr 7 Up—Nora Cunningham's world turns upside down when two of her teenage girlfriends are killed. Buddy Novak, the ex-boyfriend of one of the girls, is the prime suspect, and Nora and the rest of the town believe that he is guilty. As she learns more, however, she starts to doubt that he was involved. Nora also faces her own tribulations in her small town of Elmgrove, Maryland. She once was so sure of her life, but now she questions who she is and what she wants. Hahn's novel (Clarion, 2012), set in 1955, is a combination of a mystery and a coming-of-age story and is based on an actual crime that the author lived through as a teenager. It is told through alternating points of view between Nora and the individual responsible for the crimes. The narration immediately sets the mood with Nick Podehl's dark, hushed tones that sound manic and even scary at times. A definite purchase for those looking to add quality fiction to their audiobook collections.—Katie Llera, Bound Brook High School, NJ