Ear-Witness

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education and the author of The Private Journal
of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

Jessica March, a 15-year-old honor student, is often awakened by noises
coming from the downstairs apartment in the Parkdale triplex where she
and her mother live. One night, the sounds below take on a special
significance when Jessica becomes an “ear-witness” to a murder. An
unsettling situation becomes terrifying when the murderer returns while
she is baby-sitting, and downright monstrous when her mother’s black
boyfriend, Raffi, is arrested for the crime. Although estranged from her
lawyer father, Jessica seeks his expertise in the fight to establish
Raffi’s innocence and snare the true culprit.

Issues of racism, harassment, and teenage sexuality thread their way
through this reality-based mystery. Why Jessica, daughter of an employed
nurse and a highly successful lawyer, would be living in a crime-ridden
neighborhood is a mystery in itself. Nevertheless, the setting paves the
way for some gritty social dramas and a story that resists sanitization.
Recommended.