Somebody's Crying, by Maureen McCarthy

When Alice looks up and sees Tom staring at her, everything closes down around them and becomes very still. No one is breathing. No one else is in the room. Tom feels as if he can see right into the heart of Alice Wishart. It lies open before him, like a wide, long pane of glittering glass. So delicate and beautiful and…ready to break.

Three years ago Lillian Wishart was murdered. Tom’s best friend was charged, but not found guilty, of the murder, and Tom wanted nothing more to do with him. Now, though, Tom is going back to his home town, and Jonty wants to talk to him about a theory about who might have killed Lillian. Life gets even more complicated when Tom gets reacquainted with Alice, Lillian’s daughter and Jonty’s cousin. As Tom, Jonty and Alice revisit the past and try to find a way to move forward, the secrets each is hiding have the power to tear their fragile friendship further apart.

Somebody’s Crying is a powerful young adult novel, drawing the reader into the mystery of the murder and into the lives of the three main characters, each with problems which predate the murder as well as the more obvious ones arising from it. Using the alternate perspectives of the three main characters allows the reader to get to know each one and to see inside both their current life and their recall of past events.

Much more than a murder mystery, Somebody’s Crying is a captivating read for older teens.

Somebody’s Crying, by Maureen McCarthy
Allen & Unwin, 2008