Debut author Kate Ellison creates tension from the outset in a taut and sure-footed thriller. Penelope - Lo for short - tells her own story as she finds herself increasingly ensnared in a quest for the truth after she is almost hit by a bullet in a downtown murder. When Lo finds a necklace that belongs to the girl who was shot on a stall in the flea market, she sets out on a quest to find out more. Lo’s obsessive tendencies lead into great danger as she tries to uncover the truth.
Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad's consulting job means she's grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she's learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place - possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home. But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognises it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as Sapphire - a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get the murder out of her mind. As she attempts to piece together the mysterious butterfly clues, with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined - a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death.
Fascinating. Ellison has the art of page-turning down flat, and readers will be swept up by both the terror - and the romance Booklist, Starred Review
This book casts a spell over its readers School Library Journal, Starred Review
An engaging mystery starring a teen girl with obsessive-compulsive disorder. A pleasing mix of realism, tension, intrigue and romance. Kirkus
... a strong, twisty thriller of a debut ... [with] a complex and memorable heroine. Publishers Weekly
An unusual mystery - a strong heroine who masters her own fears. Don't miss this one! The Toledo Blade
Author
About Kate Ellison
Kate Ellison trained as an actor in Chicago and has walked across the entire country of Spain. She is a painter and jewelry maker. Kate lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Butterfly Clues is her first novel.
