The Pearl Thief

Starred review from March 6, 2017
In 1938, Lady Julia Beaufort-Stuart, 15, returns from boarding school for one last idyllic summer at her late grandfather’s Scottish estate, which has been sold to pay his medical bills. Her plans are upended when she’s assaulted near the river
where she and her grandfather harvested mussels for their pearls. Rescued by tinkers who worked her family’s estate for centuries, Julia awakens with no memory of who knocked her unconscious and is startled to learn that a scholar hired to catalogue the estate’s antiquities is missing. Julia enlists the tinkers, Euan and Ellen McEwen, to help unravel what’s happened, partly to ensure that discrimination against the tinkers doesn’t result in their arrest for crimes they didn’t commit. Each thread of this novel is exquisitely woven; Wein is a deft plotter—the complex narrative is paced like a mystery—and vivid Scottish slang adds humor and texture. It isn’t necessary to have read Code Name Verity to enjoy this prequel, but readers who fell in love with Julia the spy will appreciate learning about where she first discovered what it means to be a friend. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown.

Starred review from March 15, 2017
Wein's fans will revel in the return of Julie Beaufort-Stuart, the co-narrator of Code Name Verity (2012). Billed as a prequel to that Printz Honor book, this is no mere back story to Julie's role in World War II but a stand-alone mystery. The 15-year-old white minor noble returns from boarding school in the summer of 1938 to the Scottish country estate of her late grandfather, the Earl of Strathfearn. Her luggage lost, Julie dons -a mothy tennis pullover which left my arms daringly bare and a kilt that must have been forgotten some time ago by one of my big brothers....I was David Balfour from Kidnapped again, the way I'd been the whole summer I was thirteen.- After a blow to the head leaves her unconscious, Julie becomes tangled up in a web of events that includes a missing antiquities scholar, a body found in a river, and the theft of the family's heirloom river pearls, all seemingly connected to a band of Travellers with ancestral ties to Strathfearn reaching back as far as Julie's. Well-developed characters highlight the class differences that Julie chafes against while struggling with her family's place in a changing world. Her plainspoken, charming narrative voice establishes her own place with the same strength of character, on a smaller scale, that she showed in Code Name Verity. Another ripping yarn from a brilliant author. (Historical fiction. 13-adult)

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Starred review from April 1, 2017
Gr 8 Up-In this prequel to Code Name Verity, set in 1938, Julia Beaufort-Stewart, 15, returns home from school in Paris for summer break to unhappy changes. The family's house and land have been sold and are being converted into a school. Julie, finding no one at home to welcome her, heads to the river. The next thing she remembers is waking up in the hospital with a head injury, not knowing what happened. The summer evolves into one of continuing mysteries and new friendships and emotions. One of the workers who has been cataloging the family's collection of antiquities has disappeared. As Julie helps her family pack their belongings, she also feels certain that some of her grandfather's pearls are missing. And then there are the issues between the local constabulary and the Travellers who spend summers on the estate, the dead body-or part of a dead body-and pearl poaching. Adding to her discomfort are her conflicted feelings for Frank, the chief contractor on the renovations, and Ellen, one of the Travellers who rescued her when she was hit on the head. While not as powerful as Code Name Verity, this title is rich in detail, mystery, and emotion. The main plot is compelling and has the added depth of Julie's growth and her interactions with the cast of interesting characters and the hints of her future romantic relationships. VERDICT A must for Verity fans and a good read for those who enjoy mystery with a touch of romance.-Janet Hilbun, University of North Texas, Denton

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Those who had their hearts broken by Julie in Code Name Verity (2012) will relish this prequel opportunity to meet the brash girl who grew into the brave spy. Julie, almost 16, is returning for the final cleanup of her family's Scottish estate, about to be turned into a boy's school to pay off its debt. Before her mother knows she's returned, Julie is conked on the head and winds up in the hospital, missing a few days of memory. Out of this singular event come knotted ropes of story that overlap and intertwine. One strand is the introduction of siblings Euan and Ellen, locally despised Travellers who enlighten and complicate Julie's life. Another is the disappearance of a cache of glowing river pearls originally found in the estate's waters. Hanging over everything, like a moldering net, is the death of a scholar cataloging the estate's holdings, a death Julie may have witnessed. Yet, for all the story's mystery and historysome of it quite ancienttwo other elements take hold: the intriguing characters, brimming with life, and the evocative language seeded with Scottish words and phrasings that forces the audience to read the book as carefully as it deserves. A finely crafted book that brings one girl's coming-of-age story to life, especially poignant for those who already know her fate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

September 4, 2017
This coming-of-age adventure set in 1938 Scotland has 16-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart on a final summer visit to the Scottish estate of her late grandfather, which has been sold to cover his hospital bills. There, Julia learns that the person hired to assess the estate’s antiquities has gone missing. Then Julia is knocked out while on a walk by the lake and left for dead. She’s rescued by Euan and Ellen, twin teens of the McEwen traveler clan, and when Euan is blamed for the assault, Julia has to find the real attacker. Actor Service is particularly adept at quick-changing from Julia’s sweetly open, unconsciously aristocratic yet self-aware narration to the voices of an assortment of other richly developed characters, including her worldly dowager countess grandmother, the unemotional Inspector Milne, and the bullying Sergeant Henderson. The rough Scottish burr Service provides Julia’s grandad contrasts nicely with the more lyrical voices of the twins, pleasant Euan and his spikier sister Ellen. A nearly-15-minute author’s note includes a fascinating history of Scottish travelers and their connection to freshwater pearl mussels, capping off this swift-moving audiobook. Ages 12–up. A Hyperion hardcover.

May 1, 2017
Julia Beaufort-Stuart (called Julie), whom readers first met as a captured WWII pilot and spy in Code Name Verity (rev. 5/12), begins this prequel in 1938 as an earnest fifteen-year-old who returns from school to her family's dwindling Scottish estate. While idling by the river, overcome by nostalgia, she is mysteriously knocked unconscious. She's rescued by a group of Travellers, who are, unsurprisingly, seen as suspects of the assault by the bigoted townspeople. Julie can't remember what happened; but she believes she's the last person to have seen the now-missing Dr. Housman, an antiques scholar cataloging the family's estate before auction. The ensuing atmospheric mystery, complete with love affairs, gruesome offstage violence, three-thousand-year-old artifacts, and pearls once owned by royalty, is smaller in scale than Verity or its concentration campset companion Rose Under Fire (rev. 11/13). In this setting, Julie has the time and space for relatively carefree impulsivity, including sexual experimentation (with both male and female kissing partners). But there's plenty of evidence of who Julie will become, from her eagerness for adventure to her ire at the mistreatment of the Travellers (explored further in an appended author's note). Wein's ability to inhabit a young woman of another era has more than enough room to shine through in the often witty first-person narration. The Pearl Thief stands alone as a diverting piece of historical fiction/mystery but takes on extra poignancy for those aware of Julie's eventual fate. shoshana flax

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)