Thursday, September 20, 2012

Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn

Mary Downing Hahn is one of my favorite authors, she wrote one of my favorite books as child, Wait Till Helen Comes. I still suggest the book to kids who are looking for a good mystery with a little suspense tossed in. After 30 years of writing books based on characters she created, she has written a book about something that happened to her personally. Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls, is based on the killing of two of girls she knew in her suburban DC neighborhood.


Nora is finishing her junior year of high school and is about to start the best summer of her life, have a great senior year, and go off to art school in the city. Everything changes the night before the last day of school. After staying out late with friends at the local park, they sneak home after curfew. Nora and Ellie oversleep and miss walking to school with Ellie’s neighbors Bobbi Jo and Cheryl. Running late, Nora and Ellie take a short cut and run into Cheryl’s ex-boyfriend, Buddy, who offers them a ride to school. Everyone goes about the normal end of the school year activities with no one seeing Cheryl or Bobbi Jo at school. Walking home Nora and Ellie find out why Cheryl and Bobbi Jo didn’t make to school. The story unfolds around Nora trying to make sense of what happened, friendships that have changed, accusations of the murder and her faith being questioned.

Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls is based on actual events but the surrounding story is fictionalized. The story is told from many points of view in the span of the summer.  After reading more about Hahn, I learned that she is Nora in the story and had the same feelings and dreams.

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