The Girl is Murder

August 8, 2011
Adult mystery author Haines's YA debut is a meticulously crafted slow burn. It is 1942, and 15-year-old Iris Anderson's father has recently returned from Pearl Harbor with a prosthetic leg, after her mother's suicide. When financial difficulties force them to move from New York City's ritzy Upper East Side to the gritty Lower East Side, Iris longs to help her reclusive father with his detective agency to bring in money and escape from the daily struggles at her new public school, but he refuses, trying to protect her from immoral and dangerous clients. When a case involving a missing student at her school surfaces, Iris is determined to solve it, which leads her to spin a web of lies, befriend an observant outsider, ingratiate herself with the Rainbows (a group of fast girls and zoot suiters), and apply the emotional intelligence that she learned from her mother. Haines writes gracefully, immersing readers in Iris's perceptive thoughts, suffering, and transformation. Nuanced relationships and a social climate shadowed by ethnic tension and war result in a compelling reflection on a complex era. Ages 12âup.

October 31, 2011
With the United States entrenched in WWII and her mother dead, Iris Anderson is trying to make sense of her new life at a public school. Her father’s attempts at running a detective agency spur her to become his unwelcome—and sometimes unknown—sidekick in several cases, including an investigation that focuses on one of her classmates. Haines’s YA novel—a kid detective meets film noir mashup—proves a lively and enjoyable listen, thanks to narrator Rachel Botchan, who infuses Iris with personality and creates a character that is exuberant, curious yet melancholy, and insecure. Botchan also embraces the spirit of Haines’s prose, although at times her tone sounds too modern for the era. A Roaring Brook Press hardcover.

February 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-It's 1942 and 15-year-old Iris Anderson's life is in upheaval. Her mother died and his father lost his leg at Pearl Harbor, necessitating their move from the tony Upper East Side to the much less glamorous Lower East Side of Manhattan. She's had to leave private school and begins attending P.S. 110, where a fast crowd, the Rainbows, rule the school. Culture shock abounds as Iris discovers a whole new world that includes dancing the jitterbug at the Savoy Ballroom in forbidden Harlem. She stumbles into a mystery when the disappearance of one of the Rainbows has connections to Chapin, her old school. There are shades of Veronica Mars and Nancy Drew when Iris secretly tries to help her father, now a private detective. In doing so, she builds a rickety house of cards that is in danger of destroying not only her relationships with her new friends, but also the tentative bond she's made with her father. Rachel Botchan excels at giving each character in Kathryn Miller Haines's debut Iris Anderson mystery (Roaring Brook, 2011) a distinctive voice and accent. This straightforward mystery combines a realistic treatment of ethnicity and interesting period details and lingo with nostalgic atmosphere.-Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI

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