Once Upon a Dark November

York, Carol Beach

ISBN 10: 0823407802 ISBN 13: 9780823407804

Publisher: Holiday House, 1989

Synopsis

A high school freshman with a crush on her English teacher, Katie enjoys her job doing housework in his house until a murder in his family has Katie fearing for her own life.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-7-- The prologue to this suspense novel describes a small child locked in an attic as a punishment by "Auntie." The scene then advances 35 years to tell of the life of 14-year-old Katie Allen, who lives on the same street as that anonymous child from long ago. Katie has a part-time job doing household chores for the wife of her English teacher, Mr. Herron. One day Mrs. Herron's mysterious and gloomy cousin Martin comes to visit and shows no apparent intention of leaving. When Miss Gorley, the elderly woman who lives down the street, is murdered, Katie's life is endangered also, for she has seen Martin at the murder site on the morning of the killing. From here the plot quickly unravels. Martin is really Mr. Herron in disguise, invented to provide a scapegoat for the Herrons, who killed Miss Gorley for her money. And, of course, Mr. Herron was the child in the attic, locked there by hated "Auntie" Gorley years ago. This books starts off as a good spooky mystery, and it alternates between the wholesomeness of Katie's home and the morose gloom that surrounds Miss Gorley and Martin. Readers know something terrible will happen before it's all over, and will delight in the scary anticipation of that event. Not even the most accepting and gullible of readers, however, will swallow the Herrons' plan as believable. The idea that Katie, who has a crush on Mr. Herron and who observes him closely every day, would not recognize his disguise as Martin is ludicrous. The unbelieveable ending reduces this to a marginal purchase for libraries in which mysteries are in great demand. --Bruce Ann Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0823407802
• ISBN 13: 9780823407804
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32