I really enjoyed this book even though I didn't read Code Name Verity beforehand. Other readers already had a connection to Julia. I liked the story but I didn't love it. I wonder if I had read Code Name Verity previously I would have been more emotionally invested.
Also, I'm not an avid reader of mysteries but I love that it was so skillfully folded into the historical fiction genre. I didn't know a lot about the Travellers and thought it was an interesting addition to the story. I will be recommending this book to my teens looking to start the historical fiction genre. It has a lot of elements that would keep their interest.

Readers will delight in this prequel to Code name Verity and Rose under fire. It doesn't have the heart-wrenching moments of those two novels, rather it beguiles the reader with a wonderful crime story of missing pearls and murder. The tale will grip the reader with its suspense as well as the back stories of the Travellers and the prejudice they faced and the changes for Julie's family as they lose their ancestral home.
It made me want to read Code name Verity again. Great read and interesting portrayal of class and prejudice.

Julie is back from Code Name Verity except this is a prequel and it was so cool to see a younger her and have a mystery to boot. Julie has returned early from boarding school where packing and renovations are underway. After the death of her grandfather the estate has been sold to pay the debts. On her first day back however, before her family even knows she has arrived she is hit on the head and is unconscious for 3 days. During that time she first stays with a Traveler family who then take her to the hospital. Not only that but another man has gone missing as well. In the midst of all the mystery Julie makes some new friends and learns more about herself.

This was really good - tension, mystery, exploration. It is definitely too mature for my kiddos but a worthwhile read.

Upon awakening in a hospital, fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart has no idea how she got there. It turns out a Traveler boy (this story is set in pre-world war II England) has found her and saved her life. It is at the hospital, however, that she first encounters the prejudices of the class-conscious upper echelon. And when a body is found near the scene of her “accident” Julia is bound to keep the Travelers from being blamed for a murder, especially when precious freshwater pearls are involved.

Advertised as a teen book, the story explores attraction to not only the opposite sex, but also same sex.

The dialogue is crisp and carries the story forward. The characters are strong. There are twists and turns in the plot that are sure to surprise the reader. The end was satisfactory but didn't wow.

The time period seems accurate and well done, as does the setting and attitudes of the people depicted.

Elizabeth Wein is an excellent writer. She is also the author of Code Name: Verity, which in my humble opinion is worthy of being called a classic. The Pearl Thief is a prequel to that book, and while not in the classic realm, is also worth your reading time.

A blend of cozy mystery and historical fiction, set in Scotland. And starring Julie of "Code Name Verity" fame! This was an enjoyable (and educational) book with good, well-developed characters and plot. However, it did not have the intensity of "Code Name Verity", so I guess I was a little disappointed, because I loved that one so much. I enjoyed reading about the Travelers and meeting a young Julie and getting a glimpse into life in Scotland before WWII.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book.

A wonderful story! It lost me a little bit in the middle, but kept me in suspense enough to keep me reading.

Elizabeth Wein’s The Pearl Thief never really gets going

Elizabeth Wein’s The Pearl Thief is a prequel to the Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity. I have not read Code Name Verity, but that doesn’t matter if you pick up The Pearl Thief.

The Pearl Thief opens with 15-year-old Julie Beaufort-Stuart arriving at her grandfather’s estate. Home from school a few days early, Julie hopes to surprise her family. Instead, she wakes up in the hospital. It appears Julie accidentally fell near the river, but as her memory starts to return, it becomes clear something more sinister was behind her injury.

As Julie begins to poke around, she learns that one of her family’s employees is missing, and he went missing the same day she got hurt. In an attempt to figure things out, Julie turns to Euan McEwen, the Scottish Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his sister, Ellen.

The McEwen’s upbringing couldn’t be more different than Julie’s. As she befriends the family, Julie begins to truly understand the advantages she’s had because of to whom she was born.

When a body is discovered, Julie’s new friends are immediately suspected. Julie knows they’re innocent, but long-held biases against Travellers are hard for people to move past. Julie must solve the mystery before her friends pay for a crime they didn’t commit.

The Pearl Thief is reminiscent of a B-list black-and-white movie mystery. It’s as if the movie studio felt it was OK, but not strong enough to invest in Technicolor.

My problems with the novel center strongly around the main character — Julie. As much as I wanted to like her, I kept thinking, “In what world would a 15-year-old be able to get away with that?”

While I understand this is a period piece (sometime in the 1920s or ’30s? It’s never very specific), Julie seems more like an adult than a teen. And some of the situations she gets herself into really don’t seem to fit the time period. Someone of her station wouldn’t be openly bouncing around from boys to girls and back to boys again without some consideration of the consequences should she get caught.

The plot of The Pearl Thief features the confluence of several mysteries, but it takes a while for them to become connected, and I found myself getting bored in between. I honestly felt like I was slogging through each page and barely finished.

I had really hoped to find something redeeming about The Pearl Thief, but it never struck a chord with me.

I enjoyed this story of Julie spending a last summer at her grandfather's estate, but it did not quite live up to my expectations after reading Elizabeth Wein's other books. I enjoyed each of her other books set during wars, and I think I was just expecting more life or death struggle in this one as well. In addition, I just couldn't buy into some of the details of the story. A teenage girl is hit in the head by an unknown attacker with no memory of the event while at the same time a man goes missing, and there's no major investigation or safety precautions taken to make sure she or others are safe. I felt that all the drama needed to be taken a bit more seriously. Julie acts in careless ways when I would expect her background and the events that have occurred to cause her to act a bit more carefully.

I do truly appreciate that although this story, Code Name Verity, and Rose Under Fire are connected, they can each be read as a stand alone novel.

For me, this was a change in the usual pace of the plot from the author's previous books. The story was taking a long time to develop, and I had a hard time staying engaged. Her previous books were hard to put down.

This is an absolutely stunning book from the author of the equally wonderful Code Name Verity. Any time I see Elizabeth Wein's name on a project I know it's going to be a great read.

The Pearl Thief, by author Elizabeth Wein, is being sold as the prequel to Code Name Verity. The author went back in time a few years before CNV took place and decided to tell the story about 15-year old Julia Lindsay MacKenzie Wallace Beaufort Stuart, one of the heroine's of Code Name Verity. It is the summer of 1938, when Julia returns to her Grandfather's ancestral home in Scotland unannounced. Her Grandfather's home is being turned into a school due to his substantial debt.

Without going too much into the story, Julia finds herself waking up in the hospital with no memory of what really happened to her. It is a place where she finds that she has been saved by two Travelers (Ellen & Euan McEwen) who are treated with disrespect and loathing because of their social status. Julia herself is thought to be a Traveler by a bigoted nursing staff, and that brings us to the have, have-nots storyline that hangs over the story. One could say that this leads to her eventual path serving her country in World War II.

After being released, Julia's journey takes her through a further understanding of the Travelers, a sexual awakening where she has feelings for both the boy and girl Travelers, but honestly, it is Ellen who Julia really has the most fun with. Along with her brother Jamie, Julia, Ellen, & Ewen work together in an attempt to solve a very curious mystery that hangs over the reconstruction of her Grandfather's home into a school. The Pearl Thief is much lighter in nature than Code Name Verity. I didn't find myself reaching for a Kleenex while reading this book. I did laugh at the banter between Julie and Ellen.

If you haven't read Code Name Verity, this is probably a good place to start. Even if you have read CNV, this story will be something entirely different for you. It's not about the war. It's about Julie's heritage, her relationship with the McEwens & Mary Kinnard, and her exploration of her sexual inclinations. It also is a social commentary about those who have, and those who have not. This story doesn't get into the war between Britain and the Axis. It also doesn't explore why Julie joined the war effort, and later became Verity. That was left for Verity to explain.

The most brilliant aspect of this story is the setting. Scotland is such a beautiful and intriguing place. When I was in the Navy, I always said I would love to travel back to Scotland, and make my home there. The people, the scenery, the history is beyond anything that I've seen in my travels around the world. But, somehow I ended up in Florida instead! ::head desk:::

The Pearl Thief
Elizabeth Wein, 2017

New Release! I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review.

Premise: Prequel to Code Name: Verity. Julie is going home for the last summer on her grandparents' land; her grandfather has passed away and the estate is being sold. From the minute she arrives, however, she'll run across danger, adventure, and a deadly mystery.

This was not nearly such an emotional wringer as Code Name: Verity. In context, that's probably for the best.

What this is: a delightful historical mystery about an old Scottish family that is lush with historical detail, social commentary, and somewhat-idealized adolescent yearning. I really enjoyed it.

If I didn't find Julie's narration utterly believable and enchanting, I might cast a side-eye at how well the protagonist navigates issues of discrimination, but I think it works. It helps that her attitudes are presented as a mixture of how she was raised and her personal stubbornness and morality, not as something that makes her necessarily special.

She's navigating not only mysterious goings-on around the estate, but the heart of a teenager. Her crush on a visiting scholar is an important part of her personal story, but not as affecting as her blended friendship/flirtation with Ellen, part of a family of travellers who risk being scapegoated for many of the summer's mysteries. [FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gypsy_and_Traveller_groups]

Elizabeth Wein might still be the best writer of female friendship/love/undefined adoration working today.

Overall, a lovely story with characters you want more of.

4 Stars - A Very Good Book

It took me a while to get into this, as the main character seemed very naive and spoiled at the beginning, but she grew wiser and less sheltered as the story progressed and I enjoyed watching her develop and see things in more nuanced ways.

Peet’s final novel, finished by Rosoff after his death, follows a bi-racial British born youth in the 1920s, who is shipped off to Canada when he is eleven. He lives in a Christian orphanage where he is sexually abused and then is sent to a farm where he is overworked and underfed. He escapes and ends up with a black couple in Detroit who are bootleggers, where he finally experiences kindness. When they run into trouble, he hits the road again and ends with an older woman of mixed Scottish and Siksika decent, where he ultimately finds love.

Before she was Code Name Verity, she was just Julie, a young carefree girl just turning 16 and home for the summer to enjoy her grandfathers estate one last time before it turns into a school. She gets there a few days ahead of schedule and before letting anyone know she has arrived she decides to go on an adventure. She is attacked from behind and winds up in the hospital with no knowledge of what happened. She befriends her saviors, two young tinkers whose family has been camping on her grandfathers land for a long time.

This book explores the prejudices surrounding gypsy's, the mystery of Julies attack, missing pearls and an ancient boat wreck that might hold more secrets than anyone knew and the coming of age of a truly adventurous woman. Julies new friends are constantly under suspicion from people around her other than her family. If something goes missing or wrong they are the first ones people blame. So when a body is found the police look to Julies new friends.

Wonderfully written, keeps you guessing with all the moving parts and different layers. I loved Julie from Code Name Verity and it is wonderful to connect with her again and see how she became a British Spy during WWII. I can't say enough about this book I was so thrilled to receive an advance copy and was bummed that I only got to it recently. Fabulous book.

Oh! How I loved this book. But then, I loved _Code Name Verity_, so I was very excited to discover that Elizabeth Wein had written a "prequel" to that book featuring CNV's Julie as a teenager in her native Scotland. But while this book holds some extra treats for those who've read CNV, it is a standalone novel, and readers can most definitely enjoy it without having read CNV.

What I didn't know beforehand was that _The Pearl Thief_ would be a mystery, and such a good one! It's hard not to draw parallels with Nancy Drew: teen girl detective, roadster, excellent female chum (here in the character of Scottish Traveller Ellen McEwan). But it's an insult to Wein's complex plot, beautiful language, and rich characterization to leave it at that.

The year is 1938, and 15-year-old Julie is home for the summer from her Swiss boarding school. Only "home" doesn't seem much like home anymore: her beloved grandfather, the Earl of Strathfearn, has died, and his final illness left the family in deep debt. So, the estate has been sold to a private boys' school, which has the house and the grounds all torn up for renovations while Julie and her family pack up and prepare to move.

Julie's oldest brother, Sandy, an antiquarian, has been called in to catalog his grandfather's enormous collection of archaeological finds, family heirlooms, and other valuable pieces of what's called the Strathfearn Hoard. These are to be auctioned in the hope of putting a further dent in the debt.

Shortly after visiting the local library to see all of these items, Julie gets knocked in the head and comes to in the hospital three days later with only fragmentary memories of what happened to her. But in the meantime, the English scholar who was assisting with the catalog has also gone missing. All of this sets the mystery in motion.

Again, though, it does Wein's novel a disservice to suggest that it's a plot-driven potboiler. (Note: spoilers ahead!)

Beyond being a page-turner of a mystery, this is also a beautiful coming-of-age story: Not only is Julie investigating the mystery surrounding the Hoard this summer, Julie is also investigating the mystery of her emerging and complicated sexuality. For those who read _Code Name Verity_ and wondered whether Julie was gay or perhaps bisexual, you'll get some clues here. And there are also some other juicy Easter eggs for CNV fans, as we hear how naturally Julie comes by her nickname "Queenie"; we meet her French grandmother and find it more about the close relationship between Julie and her brother Jamie; and we get a preview of the wily intelligence that makes Julie such an excellent spy.

Even that, though, is just touching the surface: there's much here about the horrible treatment of Scottish Travellers as Julie gets to know the McEwans, whose family has been attached in one way or another with her own for hundreds of years. Wein's training as a folklorist really shines through here, as she handles the representation of this maligned group with sensitivity, historical accuracy, and even humor.

I could say more, but the best I can say is that this is one of those novels that I was sorry to finish, not only because it was so good, but also because I can never have the pleasure of reading it again for the first time. You know the kind of book I mean? This is one of those books.

15-year old Julia Beaufort-Stuart is on her way back home from boarding school a couple of days early, hoping to surprise her family and showcase her newfound womanhood and sophistication. But upon returning to her grandfather's estate, she is bludgeoned across the head and left for dead beside the river.

A friendly Traveler boy takes to her the hospital, and as Julia begins to slowly regain her memories, a murder mystery erupts around her childhood summer home that begins to embroil friends and family alike. It seems like Julia has the keys to the mystery, but she just can't remember. And, it seems like her grandfather's pearls are missing, but only she can remember they existed in the first place. Were they real, or just a childhood memory?

This prequel is pretty much nothing like I remember of Code Name Verity, which is probably a good thing since my heart was already aching when I learned this prequel of Julie was coming out.

Julie's character is like that Britney Spears song, "I'm just a girl, not yet a woman," or however it goes—and she very much bridges the gap of wanting to be seen and taken as a woman but still hanging on to the best parts of girlhood. The makings of Verity are definitely inside her, but undeveloped and unrefined. And she is very much the spoilt little rich girl, which at least she realizes in parts, and it gets pointed out to her time after time by her Traveler friend Ellen.

It's a lovely travel back in time to 1938 Scotland, showing the slow unraveling of an ancient noble estate due to debt and sickness, the treatment of the Gypsy-like Travelers who were so integral to Scottish society before the rise of the automobile but still treated like pariahs, and the sources of power (who has it, who doesn't, and whose word is believed over others). And there's the ancient history of Scotland and the mysteries of the peat, old pearl hunting techniques, and so many more historical goodies. Plus murder, mystery, blah blah blah who cares about all of that, tell me more about the various social injustices and inequalities of the time.

I'm not certain if fans of Code Name Verity will enjoy it or will be able to adjust to the completely different character of Julie (um, she's 15 and acts like a protected 15-year old lady), but fans of historical fiction, particularly Scottish historical fiction, will definitely enjoy this YA read.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

If you loved Elizabeth Wein's "Code Name Verity," this prequel focusing on Julia Beaufort-Stuart is superb! IIf you haven't read CNV, this book is still surperb and I highly recommend CNV.) Set in 1930s Scotland, “fifteen-year-old [Julie] wakes up in a hospital not knowing how she was injured, and soon befriends Euan McEwen, the Scottish Traveller boy who found her, and later, when a body is discovered, she experiences the prejudices his family has endured and tries to keep them from being framed for the crime.” She’s come home to say good-bye to her grandfather’s estate, which will become a boy’s school and inserts herself into a search for a missing professor and the family’s pearl collection while becoming friends with the McEwens. Readers have the opportunity to meet Julie as she forms into the amazing woman we meet in “Code Name Verity.” I want more.

Review: The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Title: The Pearl Thief
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: historical fiction, mystery
Series: Code Name Verity #.5
Pages: 336
Published: May 2 2017
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 3.25/5

Before Verity . . . there was Julie.

When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she’d imagined won’t be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather’s estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family’s employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital.

Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scots Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they’ve grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation.

Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.

In the prequel to Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, this exhilarating coming-of-age story returns to a beloved character just before she learned to fly.


Lady Julia Lindsay MacKenzie Wallace Beaufort Stuart is a memorable character. Anyone who has read Elizabeth Wein's heartbreaking Code Name Verity from a few years back will likely never forget Queenie and "Fly the plane!" and her bravery in the face of inhuman evil. Now Elizabeth Wein has returned to Julie's story, but in a small-town plot set years before WWII and in her favorite home of Scotland. Though this new prequel is centered on a familiar face, it's a far different kind of story than the one in CNV or even Rose Under Fire. The Pearl Thief's scope is narrower; it fits more in the mystery/thriller genre than straight historical fiction and though it's character-driven for a large part of the novel, none of them capture the dynamism of Julie herself.

I liked The Pearl Thief enough to finish reading but there's no denying it largely lacks the emotional punch of Wein's other novels, especially the one also featuring Julie as a POV narrator. (This also succeeds in part purely because of leftover affection for those previous books.) This is the story of her coming of age in a lot of ways - emotionally, sexually, and socially. You can see early flashes of the woman she'll become when she partners with Maddie here; her fight for her Traveller friends and her drive to do what's right are as much a part of her at 16 as they are later on. With Ellen's challenging and Euan's support she grows and changes and challenges her own ideas. I truly loved Julie -- and seeing her become herself is one of the best parts of reading The Pearl Thief. Also: canonically bi Julie! Yes!

As much as I appreciate the expansion of Julie's character and history, part of the issue here is that the eventual outcomes for key people are already known (the risk of a prequel, tbh) which makes it hard to become emotionally invest AGAIN in the same character (fun to see a young, silly Jamie, though!). I can't wholly commit and invest in Julie's happiness and hope when I've read CNV and RUF already. Another issue is that the side characters that share focus don't get developed and defined to the same level as Julie. I liked Ellen and her total refusal to be easy-going or friendly, but Euan has little presence and no personality. The inclusion of Mary Kinnaird, a character with Treacher Collins syndrome is a first for me, though I liked less her status as a minor antagonist. The various romantic entanglements are not my favorite (I am all for Julie's kissing boys and girls but ffs don't kiss boys and girls who are SIBLINGS.) but appreciated the diversity.

Because the book is rather slow-moving when it comes to pacing and setting up the mystery, the reveal of the actual pearl thief villain feels way too drawn-out. By the time it's shown on page, it lacks impact because there are very little other options for the story to go. Aside from those issues, I loved that the novel took pains to touch and address prejudice, abuse of power, and discrimination. The setting is vivid and detailed - Wein is an author adept at setting the stage. I just wished the secondary cast had the definition of Julie or that the central mystery plot was more engaging.