Endearing and authentic characters.
Hart Island is no place for the faint of heart. The cemetery island’s local claim to fame is an eccentric undertaker with a flair for the dramatic. Bent on his own brand of mental self-torture, the so-called Mortuary Man knows little about the living with the living, content to finish out his days with only the dead for company. A teenage girl too stubborn to succumb to death threatens to change the (un)idyllic island life that the Mortuary Man has made for himself these last 12 years. Begrudgingly, he spares the spunky girl, Rose, and accepts the consequences of crossing the wrong man to save a life. Unfortunately for Rose, an appointment with the undertaker isn’t her first brush with death. And if she can’t learn to adapt to a brand new way of life, it won’t be the last.
The Girl From Potter’s Field by James Kingston is an exciting mystery that unfolds during the summer of 1944. The world around City Island is caught up in war, and the close knit community feels the effects. Kingston deftly weaves in historical context in the form of scrap drives, ration cards, U-boat patrols and common wages, helping to gently paint the picture of a community used to making sacrifices for one another. The story unfolds at such a controlled pace that you don’t realize how much complexity and how many junctions are being formed until the author grants those amazing ‘Aha!’ moments. And believe me, there are plenty of them. With some of the most endearing and authentic characters, The Girl From Potter’s Field is a true coming-of-age novel filled with playful bluster and bravado, but ultimately brimming with the bonds of friendship and family.
