The Pearl Thief

This was delightful? I mean, I expected as much--you can't give me a book about Julie and Jamie as younger teens and NOT have it be delightful--but this was the perfect summer read, 10/10 would recommend if you like mysteries, teenage shenanigans, Code Name Verity, or all of the above. 10/10 would follow Julie and Ellen into battle. For real. Also, be warned: you will love Jamie even more than you did in CNV, because he's the best. Look, kids, I don't make the rules. But I hope Maddie (who is, of course, not in this book, as it is a PREQUEL) gets to meet Ellen at some point.

The Pearl Thief is a historical mystery that gives you a glimpse into the life of Julie Stuart before the war. It is not necessary to have read Code Name Verity to enjoy this book. Julie is home from boarding school to help her family pack up the remaining belongings of her grandfather's estate. On her first day home she is attacked and receives a serious head injury. Julie has no memory of the attack and befriends the tinker family who found her and they search to put the pieces of that day back together. Julie must recognize and deal with the prejudice facing the traveling Scottish tinker families and find her own voice and opinions about when to stand up for something or someone you believe in. Thief is a complete stand-alone novel, but the insight the story gives to the actions and beliefs of a more mature Julie in Code Name Verity enriches both stories. A layered, well-constructed mystery with amazing insight and depth to characters. Highly recommend for any secondary library.

I received a free advance copy of The Pearl Thief through Netgalley in return for a (brutally) honest review. Vintage mysteries are one of my favourite genres when I need entertaining escapism, I like a quirky amateur detective and a case that's all about the puzzle rather than the crime itself. It's a simple formula but it is difficult to get right and The Pearl Thief fails on several levels. The setting is Scotland, it's impossible to miss it with the superabundance of dialect words and phrases. It's so overwhelming at times that it's simply trying too hard, desperate to remind you at each turn that this is Scotland, with all the semi-mythical associations that go along with it. The time period is less easy to pin down, vaguely interwar, perhaps? 1920s? 1930s? It was never made clear. My real bug-bear with this one was the characters. Retro crime, even the best of Golden Age crime, isn't known for the depth of its characters. They mainly play to type, representing broad categories of society in quite predictable ways with the eccentric detective perhaps breaking mould a little with his or her particular foibles. It's an established form, comforting in its way to those who enjoy the genre, however this does not remove all restraints on characters, they may not be particularly complex but there needs to be some element of credibility. Julie just did not. She's a thoroughly modern girl transposed onto a past time without any consideration for how her background and her surrounding would have shaped her character. There's a desperate need for diversity in literature but to simplify the experience of bisexuality in this way without any acknowledgement of the uncertainty or difficulties surrounding this issue is a disservice. Sexuality, and particularly sexuality for women in any form, is not easy now, for Julie to accept it so blithely in the early twentieth century is ridiculous. Which brings me to the issue of her age. Julie is supposed to be fifteen and yet not a thing throws her, she is utterly self-possessed, so self-possessed that the way she responds to several events would be a stretch for an experienced adult, let alone a sheltered, upper-class, boarding school educated teenage girl. Julie aside, the plot would be difficult for any character support. The amnesia trope is never a good move unless you make the effort to subvert expectations, it really is only one step above the "it was all a dream" resolution. It's simply lazy writing because it provides a mystery without requiring any effort and those sudden flashbacks are an easy route to clues that would be otherwise meaningless. The fact that Julie's amnesia apparently stems from a head injury that left her unconscious for several DAYS and yet she manifests no other symptoms of concussion (except when she feigns them) is a medical miracle. With this spurious base the story lost any hold on me that it might have had, it is almost unbearably slow and totally lacking in tension. I found myself having to think carefully in order to remember what the mystery actually was, I certainly couldn't bring myself to care.

*3.5/5 I haven't read the Code Name Verity series, so I was diving into this one blind. I listened to the audiobook, and for the first bit, I struggled with the accent and wasn't whole heartedly invested, but I was happy to have it on in the background. I did find myself invested later on, and ended up enjoying the novel, but I haven't come away from it wowed. Enjoyable and fun to read. Update: I think I've changed my mind on this book. I may even think it's a 4/5 now, because I simply haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I can't wait for the next time I read this, and I would happily do it all over again right now if I didn't have a huge pile of books to read.

I like Elizabeth Wein. She's a good beginning historical fiction writer- her historical mysteries are easy to digest and factually accurate. So when I found out that she had a new book coming out, and that said new book would be a prequel to Code Name Verity starring my favorite character from that book Queenie, I was excited. However, The Pearl Thief managed to fall under my (not even that lofty) expectations. This book reminded me that, while I do like and recommend Wein's books, her writing has always been the reason why the highest I've ever rated one of her books is a low four star. It's very lower level YA/middle grade. I would have no problem giving her books to someone from the ages of 12-15, but for me it just feels too young. This is a matter of taste, of course, and what doesn't work for me may work really well for someone else, but this is my opinion. Another thing that didn't really work for me in this particular book is Julie's voice. What I found so charming in Code Name Verity now felt strained and annoying. The all caps and the goddamn italics (Night Film has ruined those for me forever) grated on me. I think maybe I was able to excuse the use of both those in Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire because in those books the main character is writing the story in a journal format. This book, however, is written in a typical narrative style which makes it not as successful. I also disliked Wein's sledgehammer approach to showing prejudice against the Scottish Travellers. Maybe it's just me, but I really hate it when morals are forced down my throat in books. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There were also a lot of things that just didn't add up to me, like how did Julie's mother and Euan and Ellen's mother play together as children when Julie's mother would have grown up in the Victorian times, a time of stringent class divisions? Hell, even the character of her granddad felt too good to be true. The only time the issue of prejudice was done well was with Mary and her attitude towards the Travellers, but even then that was cleared up way too quickly. Continue reading this review on my blog here: http://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/20...