Mystery/Thriller -- 3 stars
It's 1952. With no explanation, Jasper Leary's mother dumps him at his uncle's farm before driving away and disappearing. Jasper wants to believe she's coming back, but no one will tell him anything. Bored one day, he wonders into a part of the farm he has been told is off limits and finds a burned out farmhouse. In it, he comes across his mother's teenage diary and is determined to find out the truth. This was a really excellent story marred by characters who seemed created for a Saturday morning kid's sitcom. They are so one dimensional as to be essentially boring. Jasper himself doesn't prove to be any more believable. A city kid, traumatized by his mother's abandonment, adapts to a one room school with no problems and is suddenly adept at farm chores. It just doesn't ring true. And how many times can one small boy decide to run away? His repetitious inner guilt dialogue about his actions don't help.
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