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Review: The Lost Girl of Astor Street

The Lost Girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill
Genre: historical, mystery, young adult, YA
Publisher: Blink
Date: February 7, 2017

Eighteen-year-old Piper Sail is well aware that she doesn’t necessarily fit in with the rest of the girls her age. She’s not interested in finding a husband and there’s little that interests her about homemaking. Though 1924 Chicago is the dawning of a new era, with new styles and more freedom for young women, there still aren’t a lot of options for a young woman her age. She’s quite content at this point to just spend time with her best friend Lydia and work towards graduation from school. Then she will figure things out.

That is not, however, the way things are going to play out for Piper. After a relatively inconsequential visit from Lydia, the next day Piper is horrified to discover that her best friend never made it home. Lydia has disappeared.

Worse than that, Lydia has health issues that her parents are keeping a secret because her father is a doctor. They don’t want his practice to be affected by bad reputation. Being one of the only people who knows these issues, Piper is determined to do her part in the investigation.  Thankfully, one of the police officers in charge of the investigation is a young man who is willing to listen to Piper’s concerns. But this listening aspect also feeds the fire within Piper and soon we have a Nancy Drew type amateur sleuth on our hands!

Piper Sail is a multilayered character with flaws, but also a lot of fun traits. She’s easy to like and though she had a couple of twists that were a little over the top, as the mom of two teenage girls, I can definitely say that her train of thought and even her actions weren’t too far off the mark for a typical teen.

As for the plot and storyline, the mystery was well thought out, interesting, and kept me engaged throughout the whole story. Usually I have some idea of where the plot is headed but with this one, some parts of the story weren’t big surprises (you just know there’s something about that character!) but the way those things unfolded was definitely a fun twist.

I really enjoyed this mystery and adventure. In fact, both of my girls are being encouraged to read the book as part of their schooling and I think they’re both going to really like it. Piper gets herself into and out of some crazy misadventures! The secondary plots involving her family and the young handsome detective served the overall story really nicely.

This was the first book I’ve read from Stephanie Morrill, but hopefully it won’t be the last. I hope we get to see more from Piper!