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"  Joyce Maynard, After Her Maynard enmeshes startling emotional immediacy into the narrative voice of After Her. Adolescent Rachel, dubbed &amp;quot;Farrah&amp;quot; (as in Farrah Fawcett, the beautiful 1970s television detective of Charlie&amp;#039;s Angels) by her detective dad, grows up next to a mountain where a serial killer stalks his quarry. Enamored with the mystery, Rachel buys entr\u00E9e into the exclusive and more affluent clique of her junior high school by revealing insider tidbits about the murders to her rapt peers. The subplot of murder seems only a metaphor for the real-life gauntlet of social Darwinism that Rachel and her sister run. If you&amp;#039;ve forgotten what it&amp;#039;s like to come of age before the term &amp;quot;dysfunctional home&amp;quot; became clich\u00E9, or if you were blessed to have a happier childhood, this book is not only illuminating, it&amp;#039;s magical.\u2014Narci Drossos, Valdosta, GA Maynard&amp;#039;s narrative invites us to relive a time of uncertainty, all the while wondering whether Rachel herself can escape the killer.\u2014Maggie Malach, New York City Readers will find traces of their own relationships with their sisters and fathers in Maynard&amp;#039;s tale of a girl whose sexual identity is marred by a man who strangles and rapes the young women of her town.\u2014Clara Ritger, Washington, DC In After Her, Maynard strikes an excellent balance between the strong emotional turmoil of Rachel&amp;#039;s family and the public story of the hunt for the killer. Intense and gripping.\u2014Julia Rogers, Santa Cruz, CA After Her is a beautiful coming-of-age story about the bond between two sisters tested by horrifying circumstances. The fact that the killings are happening in the family&amp;#039;s backyard and that the novel is based on a real story only makes the story more compelling.\u2014Marissa Stellwag, Riverside, NJ Readers familiar with Judy Blume novels will immediately appreciate the narrator&amp;#039;s perspective in After Her. Maynard expertly captures that time in which one struggles to understand adult things but is still (perhaps unwittingly) influenced by the active imagination of the inexperienced child.\u2014Caitlin Loder, Oxford, MS Rachel&amp;#039;s day-by-day watching and waiting for the killer to strike makes for storytelling, and but after the wrong person confesses to the crimes, the book begins to deteriorate. All of a sudden, it&amp;#039;s like the author pressed the fast-forward button, and the ending devolves into melodrama.\u2014Joy Kinlaw Brady, Abbeville, SC  Jennifer duBois, Cartwheel Loosely based on the story of Amanda Knox, this novel reads beautifully. DuBois expertly begins from the different perspectives of the two main characters: Lily, a foreign exchange student trying to find her way in Argentina; and her roommate, Katy. When Katy is discovered murdered, Lily is the prime suspect. We&amp;#039;re left wondering\u2014did she or didn&amp;#039;t she?\u2014Marissa Stellwag, Riverside, NJ DuBois surprises by focusing on characters other than Lily, the self-involved college girl who goes to Argentina to find more excitement than her affluent New England life affords. Lily is indeed an interesting character, but her Argentinian boyfriend, her immediate family, the prosecuting attorney, and the murder victim herself shed the most light on what surely few of us ever fully imagined. Cartwheel is thrilling.\u2014Narci Drossos, Valdosta, GA It feels presumptuous to capitalize on the Knox case, and the assumptions made about what everyone was thinking along the way doesn&amp;#039;t seem fair to the reality of what happened affected the lives of real people. But despite the novel&amp;#039;s voyeuristic aspect, it&amp;#039;s a page-turner.\u2014Clara Ritger, Washington, DC We feel an enormous amount of empathy for Lily as she unwittingly goes through the damning motions. However, the ending is almost underwhelming after the considerable drama and build-up throughout the story.\u2014Caitlin Loder, Oxford, MS The author uses several characters as narrators throughout the book, which makes it difficult to connect with any particular one. While the reader may be hoping for this novel to bring some clarity to a complex real-life drama, that doesn&amp;#039;t happen. Without spoiling the ending, I will say this: If you asked me if Amanda Knox is innocent, I would say, &amp;quot;Yes.&amp;quot; If you asked me if Lily Hayes is innocent, I would say, &amp;quot;I have no idea.&amp;quot;\u2014Joy Kinlaw Brady, Abbeville, SC  Jayne Anne Phillips, Quiet Dell Mysterious circumstances and even more mysterious characters frame Quiet Dell, the story of a family&amp;#039;s disappearance. As Emily Thornhill, a young journalist, begins to investigate the case, she finds herself entranced by the family&amp;#039;s secrets. Phillips crafts characters that are both vivid and cryptic, and a compelling story that has you holding your breath until the last pages.\u2014Maggie Malach, New York City This novel is based on true events: the murder of a family of four and another woman by Harm Drenth, a con man of multiple names who made headlines in the 1930s. Part romance and mostly mystery, this is a strong piece of historical fiction that captivates the reader.\u2014Merideth Bonvino, Newport, RI The most beautiful part of the book for me is the inclusion of Annabel, the young daughter who was murdered, in dream-like sequences after her death. These sections, where Annabel describes what she is seeing going on in the present time related to the trial of the killer, are especially poignant.\u2014Marissa Stellwag, Riverside, NJ This novel features one of the most beautiful covers I&amp;#039;ve seen recently, and although I am prone to judge a book by its cover, the unnatural dialogue and stilted plot fell short of compelling.\u2014Narci Drossos, Valdosta, GA The story behind this novel is extremely fascinating and Phillips does an extraordinary job in bringing the Eicher family to life. It is heartbreaking to know that they will be ruthlessly killed. The second part of the novel begins to fall apart, though, as the author braids too many confusing narratives together to relate the story when a straightforward telling would be enough.\u2014Melissa Jackson, Bloomington, IN This story is particularly disturbing, particularly because it involves the brutal murder of children. Despite its graphic content, it&amp;#039;s a captivating read that recalls Truman Capote&amp;#039;s In Cold Blood.\u2014Caitlin Loder, Oxford, MS "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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