Stormsearch

While playing on the beach near his Uncle Geoff and Aunty Megan's home, Tim Vaux unearths the Ebenezer, a large scale model of a Victorian collier brig which sunk in a sea storm nearly 100 years before. When Uncle Geoffa history buff and inveterate tinkerer-sets about restoring the model ship, he discovers hidden in it a poignant love letter, addressed to a longdeceased Vaux. Their curiosity piqued, the entire family sets to work unraveling the story behind the missive, the ship, the lovers and their tragic fate. Readers may miss the momentum of the author's Blitzcat and The Promise, but there is much enjoyment to be found in Westall's assured storytelling and his eccentric English setting. Readers for whom the allure of buried treasure is well-nigh irresistible will overlook the too tidy resolution of the novel's central mystery. Also easy to overlook is a grafted-on subplot, in which Tim strengthens his determination to model himself after his uncle rather than his absent and self-righteous father. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)