PhilPaine.com

Tim Wynne-Jones lives in the pic­turesque town of Perth, Ontario, about an hour’s dri­ve from Ottawa. A small-town Cana­dian sen­si­bil­ity is the frame­work for this nov­el, writ­ten for teenagers, but it is not the nos­tal­gia of Leacock’s Sun­shine Sketech­es by a long­shot. It is clos­er to the haunt­ed past and stiffled hopes in Sher­wood Anderson’s Wines­burg Ohio. A Thief in the House of Mer­mory is beau­ti­fully writ­ten. The prose style is exquis­ite, full of inven­tion and word­play, and the dia­log feels true. Despite the dis­turb­ing and depress­ing sub­ject mat­ter, the book is not just the prod­uct of facile cyn­i­cism. It is about con­fronting the past and deal­ing with it, and the deci­sion to know the truth even if it brings you pain. Wynne-Jones is clear­ly writ­ing intel­li­gent, mov­ing, and tech­ni­cally superb fic­tion for the “young adult” mar­ket, and the Toron­to pub­lisher Dou­glas & McIn­tyre is not putting obsta­cles in his way. I will eager­ly inves­ti­gate his oth­er books, and the publisher.