Southern Gothic: A Celine Caldwell Mystery
by Bridgette R. Alexander (Author)
Booktalk: The BIG Picture
Tell your mother to do as we say… or we go to the police.” Frightened by these chilling words of blackmail on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 16 years old, Celine Caldwell is threatened as she raced from her tony school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to her internship at the Museum.
She wants to go screaming to her mother’s office at the Museum, where she just happens to be the powerful curator, Julia Caldwell, but Celine doesn’t dare tell her mother about the threats. These days she doesn’t tell her mom much. Their relationship has been strained once her parent’s divorce was finalized last year. Since then Celine’s mom work at the Museum ballooned into an obsession that placed Celine dead last.
Rumors are flying inside the Museum about two mysterious paintings that have disappeared from an upcoming exhibition. Julia’s outrageous insistence that the paintings be removed from the exhibit has made her the number-one target of a criminal investigation, and her diva personality does little to move the police to consider alternative suspects. Celine knows her mother is innocent and vows to find the paintings and keep her mother out of jail.
Celine’s life gets very complicated when she learns that these two paintings are more than priceless works of art – they are evidence of a long buried murder. The closer Celine gets to the truth, the more dangerous each step becomes for her. Until she finds herself face-to-face with a killer so desperate to keep these secrets buried, right along with Celine herself.
#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details
After Celine overhears two Southeby art reps talking about a private sale, her inner thoughts sum up the situation for the readers:
Two paintings go missing. My mom is blamed. And now two paintings are about to somehow find their way into private hands by way of a major auction house? A coincidence? You bet. But it’s no coincidence that someone wants a fast private sale for two paintings.
I’m scared. If those two paintings sell privately, neither the buyer or the seller will be announced. If these are the stolen paintings, they’ll disappear forever. My stomach begins to churn at the thought.
In the second paragraph Celine reacts to what she has overheard. Before and after she explains why the information is important, she has a visceral reaction to it.
The paragraph begins with emotion:
I’m scared.
It continues with information:
If these are the stolen paintings, they’ll disappear forever.
The paragraph ends with emotion:
My stomach begins to churn at the thought.
See the book trailer.
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