Molly O'Hara's young sister Nell is beautiful, spirited, and sweet, and the fact that she hasn't spoken for the last seventeen years--since she was eight--certainly doesn't reflect on her intelligence. After all, it's Nell who does the books for Enchanted Cottage Antiques, which she and her sister operate jointly. Truth is, Nell was home alone with their mother when the woman was murdered, and from that day forward Nell hasn't spoken. She understands, she can make herself understood; it's just that she doesn't utter a word.
Rummaging in boxes at a tag sale, Nell comes across an old New York theater Playbill that will change the girls' lives. It will break the monotony of their rather lonely existence in the small North Carolina town from which they have never ventured--and will also shatter the peace they've managed to achieve there. It will send them rocketing to New York, to England, and to New England, in search of a family they didn't know they had. And it will introduce them--and the reader--to as zany a group of relatives as ever bickered over a dog show or a fortune.
The cover of the program bears a photo of a lovely young actress in her first big part on the New York stage. And amazingly, the woman is their crusty old grandmother. But when they rush to question the old woman, they arrive to find that she has baffled the medical staff, who saw no reason to expect it, by dying in her bed.
The sisters, and especially Molly, who is more stubborn and "goal-oriented" by nature, realize that somewhere they have a family. But in their town, the only sources of information are their stepfather, whom they almost never see--and he can't, or won't tell them much--and their natural father, who is married to a wealthy society woman and is embarrassed by his somewhat unconventional offspring and eager to shoo them away. So they determine to go off on a search of their own.
Their travels bring adventure and exhilaration as they have the new and wonderful experience of seeing New York and London and meeting such exotic fauna as professional actors. But it also brings tragedy as "accidents" occur around them, starting with a fatal explosion in their house when they are away. These are dauntless young women, though, and charming ones, and the reader will very much enjoy going along with them on their eye-opening journeys, and will root for them all along the way.
From Publishers Weekly
Molly and her mute sister, Nell, are rural North Carolina antique dealers, devastated when the grandmother who raised them suddenly dies in a nursing home after a stroke. Right before she died, they had discovered an old Broadway theater program with her picture on its cover, and just after her death they're given an expensive emerald ring she'd kept hidden from them. The sisters realize that there is much about their grandmother's pastAand about the unsolved murder of their mother when they were childrenAthat they don't know. As the siblings travel to New York in search of long-lost relatives, Molly begins to suspect that her grandmother, also, may have been slain. That suspicion gains weight when she and Nell return to North Carolina to find that their shop has blown up, along with the friend who was watching it for them. Determined to go on with their lives, including their search for their roots, the sisters travel to England. At their extended family's palatial home there, they learn that when their ancient great-grandmother dies, they will inherit a fortuneAbecause the other possible heirs are all dead, some of them in a plane crash only a month ago. So now Molly must determine who is stalking family members before she and Nell are added to the list of victims. Mathes's (The Girl with the Phony Name) third novel begins with an intriguing premise and spins out in clean prose. Weak characters and a strained plot severely test reader credulity, however. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Gregarious Molly O'Hara and younger sister Nell (mute since witnessing the murder of their mother long ago) just scrape by in rural North Carolina. When chance reveals that the taciturn seamstress grandmother who raised them once held the spotlight as a New York actress, the pair set out to seek their roots. Their grandmother's suspicious death and unexpected bequest of a fabulous ring, the subsequent torching of Molly's antique shop, and a romantic advocate in New York all propel the quest. A mystery made exciting by unraveled family secrets, far-flung relations, provocative prose, and constant motion; a definite keeper from the author of The Girl Who Remembered Snow (LJ 3/1/96). Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Molly O'Hara's young sister Nell is beautiful, spirited, and sweet, and the fact that she hasn't spoken for the last seventeen years--since she was eight--certainly doesn't reflect on her intelligence. After all, it's Nell who does the books for Enchanted Cottage Antiques, which she and her sister operate jointly. Truth is, Nell was home alone with their mother when the woman was murdered, and from that day forward Nell hasn't spoken. She understands, she can make herself understood; it's just that she doesn't utter a word.
Rummaging in boxes at a tag sale, Nell comes across an old New York theater Playbill that will change the girls' lives. It will break the monotony of their rather lonely existence in the small North Carolina town from which they have never ventured--and will also shatter the peace they've managed to achieve there. It will send them rocketing to New York, to England, and to New England, in search of a family they didn't know they had. And it will introduce them--and the reader--to as zany a group of relatives as ever bickered over a dog show or a fortune.
The cover of the program bears a photo of a lovely young actress in her first big part on the New York stage. And amazingly, the woman is their crusty old grandmother. But when they rush to question the old woman, they arrive to find that she has baffled the medical staff, who saw no reason to expect it, by dying in her bed.
The sisters, and especially Molly, who is more stubborn and "goal-oriented" by nature, realize that somewhere they have a family. But in their town, the only sources of information are their stepfather, whom they almost never see--and he can't, or won't tell them much--and their natural father, who is married to a wealthy society woman and is embarrassed by his somewhat unconventional offspring and eager to shoo them away. So they determine to go off on a search of their own.
Their travels bring adventure and exhilaration as they have the new and wonderful experience of seeing New York and London and meeting such exotic fauna as professional actors. But it also brings tragedy as "accidents" occur around them, starting with a fatal explosion in their house when they are away. These are dauntless young women, though, and charming ones, and the reader will very much enjoy going along with them on their eye-opening journeys, and will root for them all along the way.
From Publishers Weekly
Molly and her mute sister, Nell, are rural North Carolina antique dealers, devastated when the grandmother who raised them suddenly dies in a nursing home after a stroke. Right before she died, they had discovered an old Broadway theater program with her picture on its cover, and just after her death they're given an expensive emerald ring she'd kept hidden from them. The sisters realize that there is much about their grandmother's pastAand about the unsolved murder of their mother when they were childrenAthat they don't know. As the siblings travel to New York in search of long-lost relatives, Molly begins to suspect that her grandmother, also, may have been slain. That suspicion gains weight when she and Nell return to North Carolina to find that their shop has blown up, along with the friend who was watching it for them. Determined to go on with their lives, including their search for their roots, the sisters travel to England. At their extended family's palatial home there, they learn that when their ancient great-grandmother dies, they will inherit a fortuneAbecause the other possible heirs are all dead, some of them in a plane crash only a month ago. So now Molly must determine who is stalking family members before she and Nell are added to the list of victims. Mathes's (The Girl with the Phony Name) third novel begins with an intriguing premise and spins out in clean prose. Weak characters and a strained plot severely test reader credulity, however.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Gregarious Molly O'Hara and younger sister Nell (mute since witnessing the murder of their mother long ago) just scrape by in rural North Carolina. When chance reveals that the taciturn seamstress grandmother who raised them once held the spotlight as a New York actress, the pair set out to seek their roots. Their grandmother's suspicious death and unexpected bequest of a fabulous ring, the subsequent torching of Molly's antique shop, and a romantic advocate in New York all propel the quest. A mystery made exciting by unraveled family secrets, far-flung relations, provocative prose, and constant motion; a definite keeper from the author of The Girl Who Remembered Snow (LJ 3/1/96).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.