Bound To Stay Bound

Bulletin for the Center... - 09/02/2012 Readers of Haines’s The Girl Is Murder (BCCB 7/11) just knew Iris Anderson would be back—not only had her gumshoe father virtually promised to introduce her to the trade, but she was left with genuine reason to doubt the claim that her mother’s suicide was the result of depression. Now, as the U.S. has fully entered the second World War, Iris is faced with a pair of thematically connected mysteries: first, who is sending anti-Semitic threats to Jewish students in her high school; second, how did Iris’ Jewish mother come to die in a hotel room in a notoriously nationalistic German part of New York? Again, fifteen-year-old Iris is notably rash as both an investigator and a daughter, thinking nothing of lying through her teeth to come and go as she pleases, drinking and smoking to impress a guy, and waltzing into danger with nary a plan. It’s this bratty heedlessness, though, that accounts for much of the appeal of this blossoming series, as Iris steps into the role of the antithesis to Nancy Drew, the girl detective whom she openly scorns. The gravity of the revelation of Mrs. Anderson’s murder makes the nasty shenanigans in the high school seem somewhat trivial by comparison, but the two plot threads in tandem offer fans historical insight as well as a nicely crafted mystery. EB - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 09/02/2012 Teen sleuth Iris Anderson returns, but she is now sanctioned by her pop to help in his 1940s detective work. And there are more than a few mysteries, like who is writing threatening notes to the Jewish students at P.S. 110. Iris also learns that her mother’s recent death was a murder, not suicide, so she is determined to find out the who, what, and why. Though more convoluted than the previous book, The Girl Is Murder (2011), this sequel’s high stakes up the ante for Iris. A solid mix of history and mystery. - Copyright 2012 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 10/01/2012 Gr 7–10—This sequel to The Girl Is Murder (Roaring Brook, 2011) finds Iris Anderson, a New York City teen circa 1942, both willing and unwilling to investigate her mother's death. It helps that her father and uncle work as private investigators, because from them she has learned things like how to pick locks. But when a safe left open accidentally reveals photographs of her mother that tell a different story from what the newspapers reported, Iris must confront truths and lies in her own Jewish family. She is plausibly misled by immature impressions of adults, which slow the plot down somewhat but are not distracting. Iris and Pearl build and test their friendship as other kids at their elite private school question their bond because Pearl is unpopular. Iris also gets close to an Italian working-class boy and school misfit, who may or may not become a love interest. These teens spy on one another, adding a layer of interest that draws readers in to more serious issues, such as anti-Semitism. The historical setting gives Iris's probing a certain edge; readers want to know what happened to her mom, but they'll need to understand the bigger picture of how Germans and Americans perceived one another leading up to and during the World War II. Pop is appealing as both a respectful father and grieving husband, but will he stay alive long enough to be there for his daughter? This absorbing novel works on three levels-as the story of the relationship between a daughter and parent, as a drama among teen peers, and as historical fiction.—Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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