Johnny Kellock Died Today

Susan Kemp is an instructor at the Queen’s School of English,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.

Hadley Dyer was raised in Nova Scotia and has worked as a reviewer,
publicist, editor, and librarian. Her writing has appeared in Canadian
Family, Owl, and Toronto Life, among other magazines.

Johnny Kellock Died Today, Dyer’s first novel, is set in Halifax in
1959. The heroine, Rosalie Norman, is worried that she is the cause of
her mother’s fractured ankle. But any anxiety on that score quickly
fades when Rosalie learns that her teenage cousin, Johnny, has vanished.
A strange new neighbour named David—or “The Gravedigger” as he is
cruelly nicknamed—helps Rosalie to search for Johnny in the city’s
North End. As the story unfolds, David himself becomes a key to the
mystery. Over the course of the search, Rosalie unearths some family
secrets.

Dyer has the rare gift of being able to distinguish between the
childish and the childlike. In this assured and deeply engaging novel,
she manages to communicate with young readers without talking down to
them. Preteens will definitely enjoy this mystery. Highly recommended.