The Boy in the Burning House

by Tim Wynne-Jones

Overview

An Edgar Award Winner

Two years after his father's mysterious disappearance, Jim Hawkins is coping — barely. Underneath, he's frozen in uncertainty and grief. What did happen to his father? Is he dead or just gone? Then Jim meets Ruth Rose. Moody, provocative, she's the bad-girl stepdaughter of Father Fisher, Jim's father's childhood friend and the town pastor, and she shocks Jim out of his stupor when she tells him her stepfather is a murderer. "Don't you want to know who he murdered?" she asks. Jim doesn't. Ruth Rose is clearly crazy — a sixteen-year-old misfit. Yet something about her fierce conviction pierces Jim's shell. He begins to burn with a desire for the truth, until it becomes clear that it may be more unsettling than he can bear. What is the real meaning of the strange prayers Father Fisher intones behind the door of his private sanctuary? Why does Ruth Rose suddenly disappear? And what really happened thirty years ago when a boy died in a burning house?

The Boy in the Burning House is the winner of the 2002 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374408879
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	09/08/2003
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.52(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Tim Wynne-Jones's critically acclaimed fiction includes Some of the Kinder Planets, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for fiction. He lives in Perth, Ontario.

Read an Excerpt

"I want to know what happened."

She came closer, stared at Jim, and despite the medication, it seemed like she was looking right inside him.

"No, you don't," she said. "You're too afraid."

Then she started to walk away toward the woods.

He couldn't let her go just like that. Letting go was a problem he had.

"I am not afraid!" he shouted.

"You aren't ready," she shouted back.

"Ready for what?"

"You don't want to face the fact that your daddy is dead. D-E-A-D."

Jim felt like he was teetering suddenly. On the edge of a rushing stream and not sure whether to jump or go looking for a bridge. Not sure he could clear it, not sure he wouldn't drown if he fell in. Ruth Rose was on the other side of that stream and she wasn't the kind of guide he would have wished to lead him anywhere. But what was there anymore on this side of the stream?

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. Leapt.

"Tell me," he said. "Please."

Tim Wynne-Jones's critically acclaimed fiction includes Some of the Kinder Planets, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction, and Stephen Fair. He has won Canada's prestigious Governor General's Award twice. He lives in Perth, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

Wynne-Jones builds an action-packed thriller around the mysterious disappearance of a Canadian farmer . . . His son, Jim, starts to suspect foul play . . . after a teenage acquaintance, "crazy" Ruth Rose, makes some startling accusations . . . Will keep the pages turning.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wynne-Jones weaves a strong, sensitively observed cast, plus themes of inner conflict, unlikely friendships, and the enduring power of hate, into a powerful tale.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A gripping, fast-moving plot that offers the pure adrenaline rush of a thriller.” —Starred, The Horn Book

From the Publisher

An absolutely riveting thriller . . . a tour de force.

Quill & Quire

Wynne-Jones (Stephen Fair) builds an action-packed thriller around the mysterious disappearance of a Canadian farmer. Although Hub Hawkins's body was never found, most members of his small community believe he committed suicide. His son, Jim, starts to suspect foul play, however, after a teenage acquaintance, "crazy" Ruth Rose, makes some startling accusations. She insists that her stepfather, Eldon Fisher, a highly respected minister, is really a murderer. In order to find out if the pastor was really responsible for his father's death, Jim must first dig into the past and solve another mystery involving a boy a childhood friend of both Hub and Eldon Fisher who died in a burning house. Beginning on an ominous note with Jim's fateful meeting with Ruby, this eerie novel grows darker with the revelation of each succeeding secret. While the roles of Father Fisher and his wild-spirited stepdaughter are somewhat over-dramatized, the protagonist's character remains authentic, and the swift-moving plot will keep the pages turning. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 5-9-A Band-Aid of silence has protected Jim since his dad vanished two years earlier. Now a voice begins to pick away at his scab. Ruth Rose with her wild, dyed-black hair, nose ring, and history of uncontrolled anger and mental breakdowns says some things to him that he can't dismiss as sheer crazy talk. She tells him that Father Fisher killed his dad. Father Fisher was one of Dad's best friends, and he's Ruth Rose's stepfather. The pastor's voice soothes away Jim's misgivings. He is the well-respected pillar of the community, and his friendship with Jim's dad goes back to their youth and a town tragedy that bound them to secrecy. Now someone is trying to resurrect the past. Blackmail has unleashed the dangerous actions of a desperate man. Jim, slowly recovering from the trauma of his father's disappearance, isn't sure that Ruth Rose is for real. Her prodding smacks him with the pain that he's effectively pushed away. When Father Fisher's behavior becomes increasingly odd and menacing, Jim's friendship with this bad-tempered girl becomes sure. While the plot develops as a murder-mystery, the underlying suspense pivots around the terror with which Ruth Rose and her mother are forced to live. The conflict builds methodically, waiting for Father Fisher to make his final play. The strengths and weaknesses in human relationships are consistently well drawn, yet the systematic introduction of so many characters from the past breaks the flow of the plot, sometimes slowing down its momentum.-Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Old sins come home to roost in this taut, terrifying psychological thriller, set largely on an isolated Canadian farm. Fourteen-year-old Jim has gotten past more-than-half-serious suicide attempts and an episode of mutism in the wake of his beloved father's sudden disappearance. But the pain is still sharp enough to leave him vulnerable when tough, wild teenager Ruth Rose suggests a connection between that disappearance and her stepfather, popular local minister Father Fisher. She herself claims to be in danger. According to Fisher, Ruth Rose is mentally and emotionally unbalanced (skittish, violent, and subject to sudden mood swings, she certainly acts the part)-but she plants a seed in Jim that grows into suspicion, as he finds revealing family photos, learns from old newspaper accounts of a fire that claimed a boy's life, and catches hints of an ugly side to Fisher that his congregation never sees. As Ruth Rose knows and Jim discovers, Fisher makes a scary adversary: brilliant, plausible, utterly ruthless, able to play on Jim's grief like a musical instrument. As it turns out, Fisher has more than one terrible secret to hide, but the young people here are so overmatched that the tale loses some credibility when he allows himself to be caught in a conventional climactic standoff with police. That bit of contrivance aside, Wynne-Jones (Stephen Fair, 1998) weaves a strong, sensitively observed cast, plus themes of inner conflict, unlikely friendships, and the enduring power of hate, into a powerful tale that will grip readers from start to finish. (Fiction. 11-15)

Kirkus Reviews