Book Review - The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George writes the very densely involved Inspector Lynley mystery series and has always seemed so quintessentially English it is a shock to find out she lives in America and has set this YA fiction in her home town on Whidby Island, Washington State.  This is a lighter offering but one that is engrossing and uses her penetrating depictions of people.  Hannah has a gift for hearing other people's thoughts – she calls them whispers. She is unknowingly used by her stepfather to help him swindle people out of their money and when that is discovered, he threatens her life. She and her mother go on the run in different directions to throw him off their trail. With a new look and a new identity as Becca King, her safe haven evaporates as the person she was to stay with dies unexpectedly. Becca finds somewhere to stay and is starting to feel like she will be OK until her mother can come but then she gets caught up in local troubles. Learning how to survive and who she can trust, Becca is in for an eventful and dangerous few months. The young people she meets have their own maturing to do as they deal with family expectations and the normal teenage issues of fitting in and finding out who they are. Elizabeth George uses the natural terrain of forest, hill and coast to maximum advantage and this is every bit as good as her adult fiction.
Wendy