Tim is starting over after his mother's death, moving to live with his dad in a small fishing village on the New England coast. But there's a dark mystery in Shadow Rock and Tim has bigger problems than the bullies who are making his life miserable. With the help of Emily Proctor, daughter of the most powerful family on the island, and the ghostly Kendahl, Tim tries to solve the mystery before another tragedy occurs.There were some things I really liked about this story. It was nice to see some minorities as main characters, instead of sidekicks. Tim's strained relationship with his dad is painfully realistic fits well into the story. The text was ok, a little spidery, but readable and I mostly liked the art.
But the story felt very loose and incomplete to me. The collection of villainous adults always felt like cartoon villains, never projecting the real sense of menace the authors seemed to be trying for. While the bullies' treatment of Tim was realistic, and his momentary new friend's behavior believable, the bullies' ridiculous clothes made them unbelievable as "the cool kids". The time period of the whole story was confusing. If I could have suspended disbelief and looked at the story as a "town cut off from time" genre-ish thing, it might have worked, but the characters were too vague.
Verdict: Not quite what I was hoping for, but I'll look for others by this author.
ISBN: 978-1593073473; Published February 2006 by Dark Horse; Borrowed from the library
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