The Pearl Thief (Code Name Verity #0-Prequel) by Elizabeth Wein

The Pearl Thief (Code Name Verity #0-Prequel) by Elizabeth Wein-326 pages

I have read both Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire and wanted to read this when I heard about it. Honestly, I do not think this is as good as either of those, but it is still pretty good. Julia Beaufort-Stuart (as a 15, nearly 16 year-old) is back home from boarding school and befriends some Travellers (people who live in tents in fields/nomads/gypsies) who have been living in the field on her late grandfather's old Strathfearn property in Scotland. Her grandfather (and the Travellers) are river pearl hunters and her grandfather left a rather large collection of them when he died (only it wasn't found right off). For a while, the story was a bit slow, but a few plot twists and turns in the middle and, especially, near the end livened the story a bit. Overall, it was a pretty good read, if not as good as Wein's other two in the "series."