Cameo Rose

The author of the Johnny May books and the acclaimed The Girl returns with another memorable character, Cameo Rose, a girl who wears britches because they are easier to work in, but wouldn't mind putting on a dress now and then. With a natural curiosity that often boils down to just plain nosiness, Cameo Rose lives with her grandfather because her parents are both dead. And when one of the town's laziest, most despicable residents is shot, she is determined to find the murderer. Cameo Rose is an intriguing teenager; she faces the facts of violence calmly, even when she becomes the target, and never veers from her course of serenely finding the killer. But when she finally confronts the murderer, a woman whom Cameo Rose loves and counts as a role model, the girl's reactions may be perceived as either devastatingly naive or calculatingly immoral. Readers will have to make up their own minds; this brief novel raises ethical questions without easy answers: rape may be justification for murder, and long-term abuse may warrant premeditated revenge. Ages 11-14. (Apr.)