#LoveOzYa Throwback (#17) Bloodlace

Throwback Thursday #LoveOzYA edition is our way of spreading the love of backlist Aussie books that you might have missed. We'll hopefully be posting a new book every second week, and we'd love you to join us!

Star's pick

Title: Bloodlace (The Gina Champion Mysteries #1)
Author: Kim Wilkins
Released: 04 March 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins
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Gina Champion is a 16-year-old detective...a psychic detective. Gina was quite young when she discovered a talent for knowing the history of an object when she held it, which is known as psychometry. Since then, she has honed her skills considerably. Gina's best friend, Vanessa, has landed a part in a play...the local theatre is to reopen after having been closed down for years. Rehearsals do not go well...the leading lady leaves when she sees pools of blood that disappear. Vanessa is promoted and Gina is persuaded to join, which she takes as an opportunity to explore the theatre and do some research at the library. The ghost certainly seems to have no intention of going away...Gina discovers that the theatre originally closed down because a young girl ran through the audience one night, bleeding profusely. As Gina follows the trail she realises that someone is trying to put her off. Is it Park Reeves, the creep who is making a play for Gina, when it is Vanessa who has a crush on him, or is it the pastor and his cronies, who have been trying to close this 'immoral' play down. Gina gets threatening phone calls and also sees that someone is watching her house.

why i chose it

I was 16 when I found the Gina Champion books at my local library, and while they didn’t have them all, I loved every single book in the series that I read. They were fun, intense, captivating, and full of enough mystery to keep my teenage self on the edge of my seat. 

I loved Gina’s character, and I loved her special ‘power’ of psychometry. It was new and exciting to read about especially post-Harry Potter when I wanted to read everything I could that was magical, or had magical elements to it.

This series was one of my favourites, and I remember the feeling of being absolutely sucked into the world of these books so intensely. I wish I had copies of my own so I could reread them as an adult. But I reread them again and again and again as a teenager, so that will have to suffice. 

If your local library has these books, I encourage you to pick them up.

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