Twelve-year old Harriet is doing her best to grow up, which is not easy as her mother is permanently on medication, her father has silently moved to another city, and her serious sister rarely notices anything. All of them are suffering from the shocking and mysterious death of her brother Robin twelve years earlier, and it seems to Harriet that the family may never recover. So, inspired by Captain Scott, Houdini and Robert Louis Stevenson, she sets out with her only friend Hely to find Robin's murderer and punish him. But what starts out as a child's game soon becomes a dark and dangerous journey into the manacing underworld of a small Mississippi town.

This book reminded me a little bit of To Kill A Mockingbird - not much but a little. Despite that, it took me quite a while to get into (more than halfway through). There seems to be a bit too much background and character development at the beginning, but towards the end of the book you see why we get to know and understand so many different characters and although at times a little lengthy, the descriptive nature of the book really helps to draw a detailed image in your mind.

Though the book trundles along a bit and at times is quite a hard read (I'm not sure I was clever enough to read it! There are a few words in there I have no idea what they mean!!) - the dramatic developments in the later stages of the book make up for it.

I think I might pass this along as a ray, trade or something along those lines, as I'm quite interested to see what other people thought of it.

Put in to my Anything Goes Fiction Bookbox posted out today

I loved The Secret History so I thought I'd try this one, despite the freaky doll head on the front!