All Fall Down

October 4, 1999
Dismissed by a contemporary as "Lord Byron's jackal," Trelawny (1792-1881), the 19th-century adventurer and companion of the English Romantics, traded on his celebrity as a survivor all his life. He had burned Shelley's drowned body on the beach at Viareggio and accompanied Byron to Greece, reinventing afterward the Missolonghi deathbed scene he had actually missed. Crane's biography (his debut) is more detailed and more melodramatic than William St. Clair's 1977 life, devoting much of its space to the two years and 10 days of Trelawny's escapades among the motley volunteers helping to liberate Greece from the Turks. In Trelawny's last 50 years, he made the most of his hard-won notoriety, producing two compelling, if mendacious, memoirs--Adventures of a Younger Son (1831) and Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (1858). Tough and stoic, brutal and brave, he was an attractive scoundrel who had a way with women. He married one of his four wives when she was 13, and had mistresses into very old age. He also won literary admirers among the Victorians, and was memorably painted by Millais (in North West Passage) as the old sea captain he never was (he had been a midshipman before his encounters with the romantics). Although Trelawny's own propensity to romanticize tempts Crane into verbal excess, most strikingly when the adventurer at 40 allegedly attempts to swim the rapids of the "Hudson" (actually the Niagara) below Niagara Falls, Trelawny's vitality keeps one engrossed. 55 b&w illus., two maps.

November 17, 2014
Nobody believes that Grace saw a scarred man shoot her mother three years ago, insisting that she died in an accidental fire. Now, after being hospitalized and treated like she is “crazy,” 16-year-old Grace is getting a fresh start with her grandfather, the American ambassador to a fictional European country called Adria. But when the troubled and impulsive teen sees the scarred man in Adria and overhears him threatening another murder, she and her Embassy Row friends—Rosie, a former gymnast; Megan, a genius and hacker; and loyal Noah—try to stop him from striking again. This first book in the Embassy Row series from Gallagher Girls author Carter has plenty of promise, including clever characters, an underground tunnel system, and Grace’s hard-boiled narration (“whatever chance I had for normal disappeared three years ago”). The characters and setting are somewhat underdeveloped, and plotting can be farfetched, including Grace’s admission that she never wondered why someone would kill her mother. Even so, Carter knows how to construct a gripping thriller, and she leaves enough unanswered questions to keep readers eager for the next book. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary Agency.

November 15, 2014
A 16-year-old Army brat, unpleasantly in the public eye, copes with grief over her dead mother and fears for her own mental health.In this new series by the author of the Gallagher Girls books, Grace is sent to live with her grandfather, the United States ambassador to Adria. Trouble-prone Grace causes an international incident on her very first day. Besides, everybody in Adria thinks she's crazy; Grace has spent the last three years insisting she saw her mother murdered by a gruesomely scarred man, though all the evidence says it was an accident. Grace doubts herself when she sees evidence of sinister doings in Adria: conspirators in the palace, secret tunnels and-worst of all-the Scarred Man walking Adria's corridors of power. Though some of the local kids try to help, Grace hates being surrounded by the competent and attractive multinational kids of Embassy Row while she's heavily medicated, prone to self-harm, and too pale and blonde to be pretty. Grace's adventure waffles among spy thriller, an examination of grief and an exploration of mental illness. It rockets wildly to and fro; the setup for the inevitable second volume doesn't follow even slightly naturally from the mystery's conclusion. Still, the mix-and-match bucket of tropes creates a not-entirely-infelicitous goofy whole: Hallucinations, mean girls and kidnappings abound. Will appeal not only to psychological-thriller fans, but to those who want a little glamour, some A-list social politics and a bit of high school nastiness mixed in with their suspense. (Thriller. 12-14)

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November 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-As she has been told repeatedly, Grace Blakely's mother was killed in an unfortunate fire that destroyed the small antiques shop she owned. But Grace was there, and she remembers the gun, the bullet wound in her mother's chest, a man with a facial scar, and an explosion just before the shop was engulfed in flames. After three years in treatment for post-traumatic stress, the 16-year-old has returned to where she spent her childhood. With her father constantly away on military missions, she's once again living in the U.S. embassy in Adria, Italy, where her grandfather serves as ambassador. She doesn't want to be there, tortured by constant reminders of her mother and surrounded by people who believe that the death was an accident. She knows everyone thinks she's crazy, but the teen is determined to prove that her mother was murdered. As the ambassador's granddaughter, she is expected to observe embassy protocol, but when she spots a man with the same facial scar she remembers from the antiques shop, her reaction threatens U.S. diplomatic relations with every country on Embassy Row, not to mention Adria itself. With the assistance of some unexpected allies, Grace plots a way to bring the man she believes to be her mother's killer to justice. Grace's justifiable anger and spunk are sure to resonate with teens. With its intrigue and clever plot twists, this series opener will leave readers hungering for more.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Grades 7-10 Best-selling Carter returns with a new series set on Embassy Row in the fictional country of Adria. Grace, the 16-year-old granddaughter of the U.S. ambassador, has yet to recover from her mother's shocking death, three years ago, which was deemed an accident. But Grace is certain she witnessed a scar-faced man shoot her mother, and she becomes convinced that he too is in Adria and that another kill is imminent. But is this the first time Grace has cried wolf? Like Carter's previous series, the first title in the Embassy Row series is action packed and meticulously plotted. Careful readers will suspect that Grace is indeed an unreliable narrator, but Carter nevertheless keeps readers guessing as to the true identity of the scar-faced man until the book's end. A supporting cast of other spunky teenage children of ambassadors brings levity to the darker turns in this thriller. Readers will be excited for the next book in the series, sure to be a hit with Carter's already sizable audience. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With two best-selling series under her belt, it's no surprise that Carter's new series opener is getting a major promotional campaign and hefty first print run.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2015
It's been three years since Grace's mother died, and now she's been sent to live with her grandfather at the American Embassy in Adria. Everyone says her mother's death was an accident, but Grace knows better: she saw the scarred man murder her mother, and now she's seen him again. Grace's unreliable narration makes her frantic quest for the truth even more compelling.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)