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Michelle Siegel, July 27, 2010 (view all comments by Michelle Siegel)
All it took was just one page and I was hooked! This is not my usual read but loved the suspense 100%. This story goes back and forth between the past where a horrific killing occured of a young child, Kate's best friend, also known as the Potato Girl and the present when another horrific murder of another young child occurs just when Kate returns to the small town. Who is murderer? Are the murders linked? Kate is hot on the trail. No one including the ghost of the Potato Girl, Kate's mother with Alzheimer's and everyone who knew the Potato Girl is under suspicion. A real taunting page turner!
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Annie, April 12, 2007 (view all comments by Annie)
I thought this was great! A fun, fast-paced, suspenseful and spooky read, but with genuine depth and emotional resonance. I had to find out what happened next, and cared so much about the characters, especially the mouthy outcast turned local legend, Del Griswold. Highly recommended!
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A semi-spooky modern day ghost story. But the real allure of this book is the amazingly drawn character, Del. An outcast in her grammar school, dubbed "The Potato Girl" because of her dirty, worn clothes and her scent reminiscent of moist earth, Del is denied the one friendship she has, because fellow student Kate doesn't want to admit to the popular crowd that she and Del hang out. A wonderfully written tale of the things that haunt you, both real and imagined.
by Danielle
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Part mystery-thriller and part ghost story, McMahon's well-paced debut alternates smoothly between past and present. In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del's death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate's return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del's spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates, she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth. McMahon does a particularly good job of portraying the cruelty of school children." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
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