Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls, Paperback/Mary Downing Hahn

Based on an actual crime in 1955, this YA novel is at once a mystery and a coming-of-age story. The brutal murder of two teenage girls on the last day of Nora Cunningham's junior year in high school throws Nora into turmoil. Her certainties--friendships, religion, her prudence, her resolve to find a boyfriend taller than she is--are shaken or cast off altogether. Most people in Elmgrove, Maryland, share the comforting conviction that Buddy Novak, who had every reason to want his ex-girlfriend dead, is responsible for the killings. Nora agrees at first, then begins to doubt Buddy's guilt, and finally comes to believe him innocent--the lone dissenting voice in Elmgrove. Told from several different perspectives, including that of the murderer, Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls is a suspenseful page-turner with a powerful human drama at its core. About the Author: Mary Downing Hahn grew up in Maryland in the 1950s, and the crime on which this novel is based touched her own life. She is the award-winning author of many popular tales of mystery and suspense, including Closed for the Season , which won the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery. Ms. Hahn lives in Columbia, Maryland. Visit her website at www.marydowninghahnbooks.com.