Starred review from March 6, 2017
In 1938, Lady Julia Beaufort-Stuart, 15, returns from boarding school for one last idyllic summer at her late grandfather’s Scottish estate, which has been sold to pay his medical bills. Her plans are upended when she’s assaulted near the river
where she and her grandfather harvested mussels for their pearls. Rescued by tinkers who worked her family’s estate for centuries, Julia awakens with no memory of who knocked her unconscious and is startled to learn that a scholar hired to catalogue the estate’s antiquities is missing. Julia enlists the tinkers, Euan and Ellen McEwen, to help unravel what’s happened, partly to ensure that discrimination against the tinkers doesn’t result in their arrest for crimes they didn’t commit. Each thread of this novel is exquisitely woven; Wein is a deft plotter—the complex narrative is paced like a mystery—and vivid Scottish slang adds humor and texture. It isn’t necessary to have read Code Name Verity to enjoy this prequel, but readers who fell in love with Julia the spy will appreciate learning about where she first discovered what it means to be a friend. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown.
September 4, 2017
This coming-of-age adventure set in 1938 Scotland has 16-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart on a final summer visit to the Scottish estate of her late grandfather, which has been sold to cover his hospital bills. There, Julia learns that the person hired to assess the estate’s antiquities has gone missing. Then Julia is knocked out while on a walk by the lake and left for dead. She’s rescued by Euan and Ellen, twin teens of the McEwen traveler clan, and when Euan is blamed for the assault, Julia has to find the real attacker. Actor Service is particularly adept at quick-changing from Julia’s sweetly open, unconsciously aristocratic yet self-aware narration to the voices of an assortment of other richly developed characters, including her worldly dowager countess grandmother, the unemotional Inspector Milne, and the bullying Sergeant Henderson. The rough Scottish burr Service provides Julia’s grandad contrasts nicely with the more lyrical voices of the twins, pleasant Euan and his spikier sister Ellen. A nearly-15-minute author’s note includes a fascinating history of Scottish travelers and their connection to freshwater pearl mussels, capping off this swift-moving audiobook. Ages 12–up. A Hyperion hardcover.