Dead to Me

January 26, 2015
McCoy debuts with a gritty, noir-style thriller about the Gates sisters, two teenagers coming of age in Los Angeles during Hollywood’s Golden Age. After four years apart, 16-year-old Alice finds her older sister, Annie, in a hospital bed after being beaten close to death. With the help of a private investigator, Alice works to untangle the events leading up to her sister’s attack, plunging into a seamy world of dangerous movie stars and the henchmen who will do anything to please them. Although McCoy keeps noir archetypes alive and well, from dirty cops engaged in cover-ups to ink-stained reporters hungry for their next scoop, she develops her characters well beyond facsimiles of black-and-white Rita Hayworth–esque figures on darkened street corners. Far from damsels in distress, McCoy’s heroines are fierce crusaders for justice despite their own fears or the dangers they face in protecting each other. The examination of the glamorous face of fame and what lurks behind the scenes is rife with twists to keep Alice and readers guessing. Ages 12–up. Agency: Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency.

January 1, 2015
A privileged girl turns detective in a gritty noir thriller about the not-so-glamorous side of Hollywood in the 1940s. Alice Gates has always lived a comfortable life in her spacious Hollywood home. Her father does PR for a prestigious studio, and Alice and her sister, Annie, have spent their childhood hobnobbing with famous movie stars and attending glitzy parties. Suddenly, when Alice is 12, Annie leaves home with no explanation. Four years later, Alice receives a call that her sister is in the hospital, beaten and unconscious. As Alice tries to track down Annie's assailant, she finds herself in the thick of a Tinseltown that isn't quite so shiny, one full of runaways, pornographers, malicious gangsters, crooked cops and psychotic movie stars. As she begins to pick her way through the tangled web, she learns that the present-day events may ultimately lead back to the truth about her sister's leaving home all those years ago. McCoy's mystery unfolds slowly and cautiously, offering enough clues-and red herrings-to keep readers hooked. Its conclusion is tidily, perhaps a bit too conveniently, resolved, but against the richly envisioned backdrop of golden-age Hollywood's sinister underbelly, this minor quibble is easily forgiven. Step aside, Nancy Drew; this dark mystery holds nothing back. (Historical mystery. 13 & up)

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January 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Alice imagines herself to be as good a private eye as Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe from the 1940s film noir classics. Like the Maltese Falcon and other detective films, Alice is surrounded by flawed and compromised characters, including her parents, the LAPD, and other young people involved in crime. The book opens with Alice finding her estranged sister, Annie, in a coma. She makes it her business to find the perpetrators of this crime, delving into Annie's dark past and her association with Conrad Donoghue, a devastingly handsome leading man with secrets of his own. Alice is helped and hindered by corrupt police, undercover agents, witnesses, and friends of Annie. Readers may have difficulty remembering so many characters without a scorecard. Plot twists and turns that might have made sense in a film are harder to follow in this medium. Even after solving the crime, everyone connected to this story emerges tarnished, including Alice. For fans of melodrama and mystery.-Lillian Hecker, Town of Pelham Public Library, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 McCoy debuts with a tale of murder and mayhem in postWWII Hollywood. Alice Gates, daughter of Tinseltown insider wannabes, was 12 when her 16-year-old sister, Annie, ran away from home. Four years later, Annie reappears, comatose in the hospital with Alice as the only contact. Alice is determined to find out who beat her sister into a coma. Her search involves an assortment of friends and foes, including a hard-boiled private eye, Alice's dysfunctional parents, her loyal and enduring best friend, and a ruthless movie star. Alice is bright, brave, and plucky in her pursuit of answers, sometimes at her own peril. The noirish narrative reveals the grit and squalor beneath Hollywood's glitter, and the ultimate revelation hits Alice where she lives, forcing her to learn that there is no such thing as a perfect ending and she must accept what she gets. While the plethora of breathtaking twists and turns and colorful characters may strain credulity at times, the novel is true to the genre, and readers will enjoy the ride.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2015
When Alice's long-lost older sister turns up in a coma, Alice teams up with a tough private eye to find the attacker. Set in the seedy underbelly of Golden Age Hollywood, the gripping mystery plot satisfyingly unfolds the story of two sisters, with compelling characters who can't quite be trusted and red herrings skillfully littered alongside legitimate clues.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)