The Witch's Portraits

Two 12-year-old girls in suburbia become convinced their neighbor is a witch. And they're right: she's disposed of a cruel husband and other villainous sorts by imprisoning them in paintings. Despite a number of eerie moments (for example, the evil Mrs. Blackert's 13 orange cats eat caviar while sitting around her dinner table), this supernatural chiller falls painfully flat. Its foundation is laid without tension or style; the girls' suspicions about their neighbor don't stem from any mysterious events but from an obsession Cara already has with witches, and all but the most obtuse reader will guess early on what Mrs. Blackert is up to. The friendship of the two girls, nervous narrator Laura and tough, ill-mannered Cara, is hard to understand. First-novelist Mullarkey posits that they share various pursuits, but she tells rather than shows: ""As I briefly mentioned earlier, storytelling was one thing we both loved. It was a unique and important part of our friendship,"" says Laura. Alert readers may also find holes in the narrative logic at pivotal moments. Readers with an interest in the subject would be better directed to Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's similarly premised Witch series. Ages 9-12. (Sept.)