Hurst (In Plain Sight) steadily builds suspense in this fast-paced and diverting novel. After the sudden death of their father, 11-year-old Kate, younger brother Jesse and five-year-old Sookan, recently adopted from Korea, move with their mother from Brooklyn to a more economical if dilapidated old house in rural Massachusetts. While Kate and Jesse loathe the situation, Sookan is perfectly happy about it—until she spies the wallpaper, featuring a doll motif, in her new bedroom. The pattern inexplicably terrifies the child, who repeatedly utters a phrase in Korean in an attempt to communicate her fear. Sookan also begins scouring the house and grounds, "hunting" for something. She also fears an old tattered doll Jesse finds in the barn, the discovery of which precipitates a string of odd happenings: the TV turns itself back on after being switched off; an eerie blue light materializes, making the space around it very cold; and a book appears overnight, its pages open to the solution to a homework problem that has stumped Jesse. Cleverly, Hurst doesn't slot every clue into a tidy solution to the mystery, rather, she resolves the central questions and leaves readers to interpret the others for themselves. An appealing family portrait animated by ample doses of intrigue. Ages 8-12. (May)
