FINISHED:
Milford, Kate. (2014). Greenglass House. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[Took me WAY too long to finish this one...

Certain to ruin his much-needed quiet Christmas break, a number of strangers arrive one by one to stay at Greenglass House, an old smuggler’s inn run by Milo’s parents.  When a number of the mysterious guests’ items disappear, Milo and the daughter of the inn’s cook assume alternate identities, inspired by an old RPG game that Milo’s father used to play, and attempt to solve the mystery.  As an adoptee, Milo’s opportunity to build a “character” for himself from the ground up when investigating the missing items allows him to figure out that although he may not have been a part of the decisions made which affected him in his past, he will get to decide who he will become.  The chilly setting, largely vacant inn, and cast of characters with shadowy intentions who seem to all have a connection to the history of the inn, all add to the tone, while Milo’s attempts to discover the secrets of the inn, his parentage, and… well…  an out-of-leftfield twist toward the end keep the pace.  Despite being a bit dense, though less obtuse than Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game (Dutton, 1978), this one should please fans of mysteries driven by a solid mood.]

STARTED:
Lord, Cynthia. (2014). Half a chance. New York: Scholastic.

[.]


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