Winner: Best Novel: The Booktrust Teenage Prize (UK)
A gripping and emotionally searing novel from an accomplished author.
Anne Cassidy has tackled a terrifying subject with subtlety and imagination.
5-star reviews on amazon.com
Three children walked away from the cottages on the edge of the town towards Berwick Waters. Later that day only two of them came back … Alice Tully knows exactly what happened that spring day six years ago – though it’s still hard for her to believe it’s real. The images, the sounds and the aftermath are imprinted on her memory. She’ll never be able to forget, even though she’s trying to lead a normal life. She’s making a go of things, putting her past behind her at last. But Alice’s past is dangerous, and violent, and sad – and it’s about to rip her new life apart.
“… dark, chilling and clever … Anne Cassidy reminds me of Minette Walters or Ruth Rendell” — Celia Rees
“Compassionate, unsensational and unflinching” — Guardian
Reviews
...
The search for JJ is a multilayered story, told with dexterity by Shirley Barthelmie. JJ (Jennifer Jones) is a teen pursued by the London tabloids, as well as by her own demons, since she was convicted at the age of 10 of killing her best friend. Released from prison and working to establish a new life, she is both a normal teenager with a boyfriend and plans for college and a victim of her past. Cassidy travels from present to past with alacrity as the events that led to the murder are revealed in recollected scenes interspersed amid JJ's preoccupations with work and romance. Suspense is heightened by background music and Barthelmie's matter-of-fact recounting. D.P.D. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
Celia Rees...
… dark, chilling and clever … Anne Cassidy reminds me of Minette Walters or Ruth Rendell
Guardian...
Compassionate, unsensational and unflinching
About the Author
Anne Cassidy has been a bank clerk and a teacher. She started writing fifteen years ago and has published 17 novels for teenagers. She is married with a son and lives in East London.
SJRLC services are funded by dollars appropriated by the New Jersey Legislature for the New Jersey
Library Network and administered by the New Jersey State Library, an affiliate
of Thomas Edison State College.
...
