The Night Tourist - ORR 4

Title: The Night Tourist

Author: Katherine Marsh

Genre: Mystery

This week, I have fnished a book called A Girl Named Disaster, and I have started reading a mystery called The Night Tourist. This book was an Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery in 2008, and so far I really like it. The main character, Jack Perdu is a ninth grader who lives with his father in New Haven. His father is a professor at Yale University, and Jack is a very lonely 14-year-old, who spends most of his time reading. However, during one winter evening, Jack gets into an almost-fatal car accident, but still recovers. However, a few days later, he wakes up at his house, and finds that a stranger is sitting in his living room, examining a piece of paper. Once the stranger sees Jack, he jumps out the window, but once Jack actually looks out the window, searching for the strange man, he doesn't find any trace of him. Jack does, however, find an old map of New York City that the man left behind that dates all the way back to 1865. At the bottom of the map he also finds that, in his father's handwritting, was the name "Anastasia". Anastasia is Jack's mother, who died when he was six, in New York. Jack doesn't tell his father about what happened, but, for unknown reasons, Jack's father still sends him to a doctor in New York. Once Jack arrives at Grand Central, he gets a cab and goes to Dr. Lyons. Dr. Lyons doesn't even examine Jack, but just tells him that he knew his mother, talks to him about latin (a language Jack loves and is very good at), and shoves him out of the office. Jack finds this really strange, but doesn't do anything about it, and decided to take the next train home to New Haven. As he is waiting for the next train, Jack starts following a group of tourists, and ends up in the whispering gallery at Grand Central. However, once everybody leaves, Jack finds himself still at the gallery, where he meets a strange girl, Euri, who is a ghost, and who shows Jack a world that he would have never guessed existed; the New York Underworld, on the ninth floor of the Grand Central, on Track 61. There, Jack is hoping to finally reconcile with his long-lost mother.

I really like this book so far, because it is different from the books I usually read, and it is the first mystery novel I have read in quite a while. I really like the style of writing that the author is using, because it always leaves you thinking about what is going to happen next. It is a very unpredictable book. I also really like how Jack's character is developed, and how you can relate to him in certai situations.