The Horn Book Guide

OLDER FICTION

Wein, Elizabeth

The Pearl Thief

328 pp. | Hyperion | May, 2017 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4847-1716-5 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-4847-1951-0

(2) YA Code Name Verity protagonist Julie begins this prequel in 1938 as an earnest fifteen-year-old. While idling by the river on her family's Scottish estate, she is mysteriously knocked unconscious and rescued by a group of Travellers. The ensuing atmospheric mystery is complete with love affairs, gruesome offstage violence, three-thousand-year-old artifacts, and pearls once owned by royalty. Wein's ability to inhabit a young woman of another era shines.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2017