Paper edition Interesting read Recommended 5 stars

Isabella Ripa knows she is not to open the door to the boutique when Aunt Tallulah is not present. However the elegant woman at the door is so desperate Isabella does so anyway.

Thus Isabella begins an adventure filled with murder, disappearance, conspiracy, machination and intrigue. Isabella and her older sister are wards of her aunt since her father’s death and abandonment by her mother. Isabella and her two closest friends Vicki and Lauren set out to discover what has become of the Penningtons.

The search leads them to almost becoming victims of a desperate con man who has already killed and is ready to murder again.

On the pages of The Night The Penningtons Vanished Writer Huesler proves her versatility.

Her first book Buried in the Townhouse was a delightful mystery. The Night The Penningtons Vanished is a mystery, however this one is for the younger set. The Night The Penningtons Vanished is a well-crafted novel filled with delightful characters.

Isabella is overweight, eats too much and like her friends is prone to jump to conclusions much like many fifteen-year-olds in our society. Vicki and Lauren prove perfect foils to Isabella’s sleuthing. Carla the older sister is a self-centered girl, mad at the world, won’t study, driving Aunt Tallulah up the wall.

Again much as we find in many seventeen-year-olds. Dialog between the characters is believable as the girls scrap among themselves, spar with Aunt Tallulah and pick scenarios out of the air to explain what is happening.

Writer Heusler’s affinity for description serves her well, the reader is drawn right into settings, we feel the cold, taste the bitter, see the frightening. This is a book sure to please many mature middle school readers as well as the young adult set.

Parents, teachers and home schoolers alike will find the book a valuable addition to their library. Well done, happy to recommend.

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Reviewed by:  Molly's BOOK Reviews molly martin

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