Star Turn by Ursula Jones (review)

Ollie travels around 1936 England with the a teen variety act, the Star Turns, trying to avoid abuse by his father, who directs the troupe, and plotting to make his escape and turn his life in another direction. At first it seems that training on the sly to be an acrobat with another performing group would be the key, but when that group dissolves, Ollie's close to despair. Then he and an American boy named Ralph see each other through their train windows, and the boys instantly recognize that they look exactly like each other. Ollie brushes it off, but Ralph is obsessed with tracking down his double and hops off the train in pursuit. What ensues is an old-fashioned, seriocomic cat-and-mouse chase, lavishly and intricately plotted in a style reminiscent of Geraldine McCaughrean at full tilt. A steadily accruing cast of picaresque characters—from an Irish jig busker, to a tubercular acrobat, to an egocentric matinee idol, to a gun-toting, mishap-prone mystery man in black and white shoes—lead the boys through myriad twists and turns until the Big Reveal and the inevitable happy ending. With a knife-throwing routine gone deadly wrong for the opening scene, and enough loopy action to leave readers short of breath, nobody's leaving this show until the final curtain.