What I Saw and How I Lied (by Judy Blundell)

Just after WWII, Evie's stepfather, a just-returned soldier, drives Evie and her mother, Bev, from their home in Queens to Palm Beach, ostensibly for a vacation. There they meet, apparently coincidentally, a handsome young man whom Joe knew in the war, and Evie promptly begins falling in love with him. But she also begins to see that there are layers of secrets surrounding him, Joe, and Bev. And when tragedy occurs, and her parents are put on trial for a terrible crime, Evie has decide what is true, whom to believe, and what to do with that knowledge.

It can be hard to define the difference between adult and young-adult fiction, and this noir-ish mystery, set in the '40s, certainly skirts the line, wherever that may be. Infused with ambiguous and questionable morality, driven by sexual awakening and relationships, and set in a period with very different values from those that prevail today, adults will find as much to enjoy in this riveting drama as older teens.

Author Judy Blundell, whose previous books are mostly Star Wars novels, here shows a confidence and sure touch when dealing with a very different type of book. The characterizations of both major and secondary characters are clear and vivid, the sense of place and time is palpable, and the mystery, though predictable, is compelling. The postwar era is evoked with a light touch, though the constant smoking by nearly all of the characters, while realistic, gets a bit tedious after a while. Nonetheless, it's an auspicious debut into the world of literary fiction.