Stone Cold Dead
An Ellie Stone Mystery
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
December 21, 1960, the shortest day of the year: Fifteen-year-old Darleen Hicks slips away from her school bus as it idles in the junior-high parking lot, waiting to depart. Moments later the bus rumbles away without her, and she is never seen again. New Year’s Eve, 1960: The small upstate town of New Holland, New York, is in the grips of a severe cold snap, when Ellie Stone receives a late-night caller—Irene Metzger, the grieving mother of Darleen Hicks. She tells Ellie that the local police won’t help her, that they believe Darleen has run off with some older boy and will return when she is ready. Irene has read Ellie’s stories in the paper on an earlier murder case and believes Ellie is her last hope. Ellie Stone is on a chilling journey to a place of uncertainty, loss, teenage passion, and vulnerability—where Ellie’s questions are unwanted and her life is in danger. From the Trade Paperback edition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in late 1960 and early 1961, Ziskin's intriguing third Ellie Stone mystery (after 2014's No Stone Unturned) finds the feisty "girl reporter" still trying to make her bones in the all-male newspaper world. A late-night visit from a desperate mother lures Ellie into a missing person's case in New Holland, N.Y. Since 15-year-old Darleen Hicks disappeared shortly before Christmas, the police have made little effort to locate her, figuring that she's run off with some hood. But Ellie's questions begin to rattle a few cages, and she soon has to contend with Darleen's bully of a stepfather, the girl's juvenile delinquent boyfriend, an ominous farmer, an amorous teacher, and another reporter desperate to steal the story. After Ellie is attacked, the police take the case much more seriously. Ellie is a refreshing, riotously funny amateur sleuth. Spot-on language and perceptions of the era are a plus.
