Sketchy: The Bea Catcher Chronicles, Book 1

Gr 9 Up—Straight out of rehab and starting at a new school, Bea Washington is just hoping to survive the year without incident. Reconnecting with a friend from art camp and embracing her interest in vintage fashion help Bea muddle through, until she has a strange run-in with "queen bee," Willa Pressman, who was the only living victim of a serial rapist. The girl claims to have no memory of the man who assaulted her. Yet, when Bea discovers that she can literally draw the truth of what people are seeing in their minds, she draws his image and discovers that Willa has been lying to everyone, including the police. Convinced that she must help catch the rapist, Bea struggles to convince Willa to confess her memories of the night and to identify her attacker before he kills again. Narrator Kate Reinders does a good job of melding her youthful, yet deliberate voice to Bea's serious and sometimes acerbic personality. She hits the mark in each scene as Bea struggles to maintain her sobriety and deal with the social fallout of having been in rehab and her grief and guilt over her estranged best friend's death. Libraries looking to increase their mystery collections, especially those with a supernatural twist, may want to consider Samm's novel (Amazon, 2013).—Jessica Miller, West Springfield Public Library, MA