Staff Pick
Jennifer McMahon's latest offering is a quirky combination murder mystery-thriller-supernatural-cursed family story. Throw in themes of homelessness, revenge, magic, LGBT issues, artistry, and drug abuse, and you've got quite a complex tale — one that only McMahon could tell. Miles sees his mother murdered by a masked man, and that tragedy follows him into adulthood and beyond; reverberations of that horrific act ripple through the generations. The revelation at the core of the mystery is completely gripping — I raced through this book in two days. And as a bonus, one of the most delightful surprises in this book is McMahon's perfectly rendered character, Pru. At the heart of a dowdy high school cafeteria lady, a true artist simmers; and with a little help from her friends, Pru blossoms into a true wonder.
McMahon delivers another winner! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Ashford, Vermont, might look like your typical sleepy New England college town, but to the shadowy residents who live among the remains of its abandoned mills and factories, it s known as Burntown.
Eva Sandeski, known as Necco on the street, has been a part of this underworld for years, ever since the night her father Miles drowned in a flood that left her and her mother Lily homeless. A respected professor, Miles was also an inventor of fantastic machines, including one so secret that the plans were said to have been stolen from Thomas Edison s workshop. According to Lily, it s this machine that got Miles murdered.
Necco has always written off this claim as the fevered imaginings of a woman consumed by grief. But when Lily dies under mysterious circumstances, and Necco s boyfriend is murdered, she s convinced her mother was telling the truth. Now, on the run from the man called Snake Eyes, Necco must rely on other Burntown outsiders to survive.
There are the fire eaters, mystical women living off the grid in a campsite on the river s edge, practicing a kind of soothsaying inspired by powerful herbs called the devil s snuff; there s Theo, a high school senior who is scrambling to repay the money she owes a dangerous man; and then there s Pru, the cafeteria lady with a secret life.
As the lives of these misfits intersect, and as the killer from the Sandeski family s past draws ever closer, a story of edge-of-your-seat suspense begins to unfurl with classic Jennifer McMahon twists and surprises."
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People:
Ashford, Vermont, might look like your typical sleepy New England college town, but to the shadowy residents who live among the remains of its abandoned mills and factories, it's known as -Burntown.-
Eva Sandeski, known as -Necco- on the street, has been a part of this underworld for years, ever since the night her father Miles drowned in a flood that left her and her mother Lily homeless. A respected professor, Miles was also an inventor of fantastic machines, including one so secret that the plans were said to have been stolen from Thomas Edison's workshop. According to Lily, it's this machine that got Miles murdered.
Necco has always written off this claim as the fevered imaginings of a woman consumed by grief. But when Lily dies under mysterious circumstances, and Necco's boyfriend is murdered, she's convinced her mother was telling the truth. Now, on the run from the man called -Snake Eyes, - Necco must rely on other Burntown outsiders to survive.
There are the -fire eaters, - mystical women living off the grid in a campsite on the river's edge, practicing a kind of soothsaying inspired by powerful herbs called -the devil's snuff-; there's Theo, a high school senior who is scrambling to repay the money she owes a dangerous man; and then there's Pru, the cafeteria lady with a secret life.
As the lives of these misfits intersect, and as the killer from the Sandeski family's past draws ever closer, a story of edge-of-your-seat suspense begins to unfurl with classic Jennifer McMahon twists and surprises.
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People: A fantastic machine that can reunite the living with the dead. A haunting--and dangerous--legacy that could destroy one family for generations.
All families have secrets, but Eva Sandeski's family has a secret that someone is willing to kill for.
Find out why she's hiding in a mysterious place called Burntown...
Synopsis
On the surface, Ashford, Vermont, seems like a quaint New England college town, but to those who live among the shadowy remains of its abandoned mills and factories, and beneath its towering steel bridges, it's known as Burntown.
Eva Sandeski, who goes by the name Necco on the street, has been a part of Burntown's underworld for years, ever since the night her father, Miles, drowned in a flood that left her and her mother, Lily, homeless. A respected professor, Miles was also an inventor of fantastic machines, including one so secret that the plans were said to have been stolen from Thomas Edison's workshop. According to Lily, this machine got Miles murdered.
Necco has always written off this claim as the fevered imaginings of a woman consumed by grief. But when Lily also dies under mysterious circumstances, and Necco's boyfriend is murdered, she's convinced her mother was telling the truth. Now, on the run from a man called Snake Eyes, Necco must rely on other Burntown outsiders to survive.
As the lives of these misfits intersect, and as the killer from the Sandeski family's past draws ever closer, a story of edge-of-your-seat suspense begins to unfurl with classic Jennifer McMahon twists and turns.