Family Secrets

the long version

Jimmy Perkins is fifteen when his mother dies of cancer, but before he can really begin to grieve, family history rears up in his face, and he must solve an old mystery that threatens to claim even more victims. A story of growing up in a small town in the 1950s, it is a novel of loss and love and the way the past keeps intruding on the present. (Reminds a reader of what Faulker said: "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past.") Told with humor and compassion; good choice for teen and Young Adult readers as well as anyone who likes a compelling story.