Voice of Youth Advocates

The setting for this historical mystery is the summer of 1938 in Scotland, and the beginning of World War II is only months away. The Pearl Thief is a snapshot of the life of Julie, the beloved spy in Wein’s Printz Honor book, Code Name Verity (Disney, 2012/VOYA April 2012). Julie, Lady Julia Lindsay MacKenzie Wallace Beaufort-Stuart, returns in this prequel as a poised yet high-spirited fifteen-year-old visiting her grandfather’s estate for the last time. Her grandfather is dead after a financially draining illness, and Julie’s family is clearing out the personal effects of her grandparents. A professor from Oxford has also been onsite cataloging the family’s archeological collection. A mystery arises when this professor’s disappearance coincides with Julie’s memory-stealing accident along a river bank on the property. The rich details of the prewar time period, the intriguing history of Scottish river pearls, and the glimpse into the social dynamics between Scottish Travellers and the landed gentry of Scotland make for fascinating reading, but the real treat is reading another chapter in the story of Julie. Give this to fans of the first book, as well as historical fiction buffs.—Debbie Kirchhoff.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In 1938, Lady Julia Beaufort-Stuart, 15, returns from boarding school for one last idyllic summer at her late grandfather-s Scottish estate, which has been sold to pay his medical bills. Her plans are upended when she-s assaulted near the river

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Wein's fans will revel in the return of Julie Beaufort-Stuart, the co-narrator of Code Name Verity (2012). Billed as a prequel to that Printz Honor book, this is no mere back story to Julie's role in World War II but a stand-alone mystery. The 15-year-old white minor noble returns from boarding school in the summer of 1938 to the Scottish country estate of her late grandfather, the Earl of Strathfearn. Her luggage lost, Julie dons "a mothy tennis pullover which left my arms daringly bare and a kilt that must have been forgotten some time ago by one of my big brothers….I was David Balfour from Kidnapped again, the way I'd been the whole summer I was thirteen." After a blow to the head leaves her unconscious, Julie becomes tangled up in a web of events that includes a missing antiquities scholar, a body found in a river, and the theft of the family's heirloom river pearls, all seemingly connected to a band of Travellers with ancestral ties to Strathfearn reaching back as far as Julie's. Well-developed characters highlight the class differences that Julie chafes against while struggling with her family's place in a changing world. Her plainspoken, charming narrative voice establishes her own place with the same strength of character, on a smaller scale, that she showed in Code Name Verity. Another ripping yarn from a brilliant author. (Historical fiction. 13-adult)

Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Those who had their hearts broken by Julie in Code Name Verity (2012) will relish this prequel opportunity to meet the brash girl who grew into the brave spy. Julie, almost 16, is returning for the final cleanup of her family's Scottish estate, about to be turned into a boy's school to pay off its debt. Before her mother knows she's returned, Julie is conked on the head and winds up in the hospital, missing a few days of memory. Out of this singular event come knotted ropes of story that overlap and intertwine. One strand is the introduction of siblings Euan and Ellen, locally despised Travellers who enlighten and complicate Julie's life. Another is the disappearance of a cache of glowing river pearls originally found in the estate's waters. Hanging over everything, like a moldering net, is the death of a scholar cataloging the estate's holdings, a death Julie may have witnessed. Yet, for all the story's mystery and history me of it quite ancient o other elements take hold: the intriguing characters, brimming with life, and the evocative language seeded with Scottish words and phrasings that forces the audience to read the book as carefully as it deserves. A finely crafted book that brings one girl's coming-of-age story to life, especially poignant for those who already know her fate.

Horn Book

Code Name Verity protagonist Julie begins this prequel in 1938 as an earnest fifteen-year-old. While idling by the river on her family's dwindling Scottish estate, she is mysteriously knocked unconscious and rescued by a group of Travellers. The ensuing atmospheric mystery is complete with love affairs, gruesome offstage violence, three-thousand-year-old artifacts, and pearls once owned by royalty. Wein's ability to inhabit a young woman of another era shines.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Wein's fans will revel in the return of Julie Beaufort-Stuart, the co-narrator of Code Name Verity (2012). Billed as a prequel to that Printz Honor book, this is no mere back story to Julie's role in World War II but a stand-alone mystery. The 15-year-old white minor noble returns from boarding school in the summer of 1938 to the Scottish country estate of her late grandfather, the Earl of Strathfearn. Her luggage lost, Julie dons "a mothy tennis pullover which left my arms daringly bare and a kilt that must have been forgotten some time ago by one of my big brothers….I was David Balfour from Kidnapped again, the way I'd been the whole summer I was thirteen." After a blow to the head leaves her unconscious, Julie becomes tangled up in a web of events that includes a missing antiquities scholar, a body found in a river, and the theft of the family's heirloom river pearls, all seemingly connected to a band of Travellers with ancestral ties to Strathfearn reaching back as far as Julie's. Well-developed characters highlight the class differences that Julie chafes against while struggling with her family's place in a changing world. Her plainspoken, charming narrative voice establishes her own place with the same strength of character, on a smaller scale, that she showed in Code Name Verity. Another ripping yarn from a brilliant author. (Historical fiction. 13-adult)