In this smart supernatural thriller, Johnson (Suite Scarlett; 13 Little Blue Envelopes) yet again proves herself a master of the YA genre. Rory Deveaux hails from Louisiana and has the accent and the crazy 'gator stories to prove it. When her family moves to England during her senior year of high school, she knows things will be different--but she could never have imagined how different. A Jack the Ripper copycat begins stalking the neighborhood surrounding her London boarding school, and Rory starts to see things no one else can see--things the killer doesn't want her to see. He's coming for her, and neither her newfound abilities nor the people sent to protect her may be able to stop him.
Rory is the right person in the wrong place at the wrong time, a girl made special purely by force of her personality and the circumstances in which she finds herself. Johnson's trademark wit is in full force in this newest series. She balances the everyday drama of teenage life--boys, school, roommates--with a hair-raising plot and keeps readers laughing as well as enthralled. With a sly wink at the paranormal genre as a whole, she crafts something new and engaging. Anglophiles, ghost hunters, detectives-in-training and fans of a good story well told will all want to pick this one up. --Jenn Northington, events manager at WORD bookstore