Streets of Shadow by Rebecca Bischoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical YA novel which had me hooked from start to finish. I fell in love with the main character, Kenna literally on page one when the reader is introduced to her, whilst she’s scaling a wall in her skirts! Of course the book is set in 1665 so a fifteen year old girl should definitely not be scaling walls. This act alone gives the reader a taste of Kenna’s character and personality. Kenna is fleeing from her grandfather’s Scottish estate having suspected that her sister was murdered by her husband, and fears that she will be next. However, as she was fleeing she is kidnapped by a stranger who takes her into the city of Edinburgh, where she is locked inside the gate at the head of Stewart’s Close.
The Close is a long, narrow alleyway into the poorest part of the city. Kenna is accused by the local lawman of leaving a plague stricken house, so a white cloth is tied outside to warn others that the disease has struck, and no one can enter or leave the close. Without money, or friends she has no way of leaving, all she wanted was to find justice for her murdered sister, but now she needs to survive and escape herself. This has a gripping storyline with plenty of plot twists that kept me guessing as to the outcome of the story. The descriptive narrative brought the setting vividly to life, and the added historical details transported me to Edinburgh in 1665.

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