An unsolved crime . . . When eleven-year-old Clio’s WWII-correspondent mother dumps her at her great-aunts’ mansion in Southern Oklahoma, Clio embroils herself in a decades-old mystery of missing women. Three missing women . . . Transported from freedom in New York City to the rigid guardianship of great-aunts, the precocious Clio sets about solving the puzzle of disappearing women, a problem … that no one wants to discuss. A desperate scheme . . . An admirer of the ancient mapmaker Ptolemy, Clio maps her own war against a serial killer, unmasking suspects and long-held secrets, as she tries to understand why her mother fled her childhood home and left her with two odd aunts in a strange world.
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This was a really interesting read. It had a good mix of historical fiction and mystery. The mIn character 11 year old Clio was a delightful narrator. The characters all were diverse and fun to learn about through her lense.
The story was compelling and moved along at a fast pace. It kept my attention easily. I read the book in one setting. There was a bit of heavy foreshadowing, but that did not detract from the story.
One note: there is a slight anachronism about research on serial killers. Clio talks about the warning signs of a serial killer i.e. bedwetting, animal torture, etc. But I believe those connections were not put together until the 1980s when Ressler did his study. Again it doesn’t harm the story. It was just something I noticed as a true crime fan.
A wonderful story you won’t want to put down! Clio is an adorable, spunky albeit sassy girl you’ll fall in love with. Some characters you feel make up a perfect family without being bonded by blood.
I was surprised to find Clio at War by Peggy Gardner not listed in the young adult (YA) genre on Amazon. I recommend this as a good YA read because of an absence of sexual or violent language. This is most appropriate as the Main Character is 11-year-old Clio. She will tell most of the story in the first person. Clio begins the story as a very angry daughter of Delia. Her mom is taking her on a “forced march” to Wolfe Flats, Oklahoma. The town and area are as small and boring as the name implies. Delia will leave Clio with Aunt Harriet and Aunt Norma as Delia pursues an exciting career in Europe as a war correspondent. Delia dreams of being a contemporary of Martha Gellhorn. The war is WWII. After dropping Clio off, we hear next to nothing about Clio’s mom or the war in Europe.
This story will cover the WWII experience of those living in the US, the shortages and rationing tolerated by a population willing to sacrifice in the present for future victory. Some groups sacrificed more than others. Clio is aware of the internment of Japanese, many of whom were American citizens, by the US government. Clio will see the unreasoned fear and discrimination against Germans and even “suspect” Europeans, many of whom were born in the US. Clio arrived with her mother in Wolfe Flats from New York, where Clio had spent her entire life. Clio will have to adjust from a cosmopolitan lifestyle to one where there are separate water fountains and separate schools for racial groups. She lives in an area where there is a special holiday for honoring the Confederate war dead. These points make this a valuable YA read.
There is solid character development of Clio as she deals with many factors. She has been abandoned by her mother, put in the care of ultra-conservative elderly aunts, and forced to attend a decidedly inferior school. For example, the school library is smaller than her bedroom in her New York apartment. All these factors take time to develop and come about at the expense of the main plot. This novel is not a page-turner but for people unfamiliar with the historical period, there is fun in the discovery of new information.
We have two big mysteries. Why did Delia abruptly leave Wolfe Flats? She has voiced her desire never to return to her home many times in conversations with Clio. Delia literally dropped Clio off at her aunt’s house. She exited the cab with Clio, knocked on the front door, and re-entered the taxi, riding off without looking back to see if anyone answered the door. Clio only gradually becomes aware of the bigger and more central mystery. Over a period of years paralleling Clio’s lifetime, four women have disappeared, the most recent just over one year prior to Clio’s arrival. Clio will make it her mission to figure out what happened. If she couldn’t solve the mysteries of the disappearances themselves, she should at least be able to figure out why people give her partial information in incomplete sentences, as if they are trying to conceal information from her.
I enjoyed the novel because I learned new information about the experiences of people who did not go off to war. I enjoyed the detailed character development and the YA point of view. I gave this novel four Amazon stars only because I felt Clio unbelievably precocious for her age. The Kindle price on Amazon is USD 7.99 but can be read free through a Kindle Unlimited subscription (the way I read it).
This is a pleasant novel to gently bring in the New Year.