Amnesia by Sinclair Smith

Alicia awakes to discover she is in some kind of hospital, she can't remember who she is and she doesn't recognise herself in the mirror. Then, one day her sister, Marta, shows up and has her discharged. Alicia has no recollection of Marta and when she arrives home she is told their parents are dead. Nothing in the house is what she expects, all the clothes in her wardrobe are new and still have their price tags attached. Furthermore, the clothes are very drab, nothing like the clothes she feels she would have bought. There are no photos of her in the house, no radio, no television, not even newspapers or magazines. Alicia feels increasingly suffocated by Marta, she is not allowed to use the phone and Marta dictates what she can and can't eat. She  feels like a prisoner in the house. Then one day she leaves the house to go into town where she meets Mark, finally, someone who knows her...

This books moves along at a snail's pace and a lot of the action and conversations in the house are improbable, and, I kept asking myself why didn't Alicia leave the confines of the house earlier in the book? The action does pick up considerably in the second half of the book and the ending is a little unusual and unexpected.

Journey into War by Margaret Donaldosn

If you enjoyed Morris Gleitzman's Once and Then, I can just about guarantee that you will like this book too. It is May and France is about to fall to the German army. Ten year old Janey has been in France for two years, but now her father insists that she should return to England. In the care of Martin, the gardener, she is on her way to Dieppe when they are separated and she is stranded. She thinks of going to Quentin in search of her dad. So with a horse and a a dog for company she sets off only to discover her Dad has already left and the town is occupied by the Germans. Janey meets up with two Polish boys, also separated from loved-ones. Together, they wage their own war against the Germans. Janey is captured whilst sabotaging a truck and things take a turn for the worse.

Games by Robin Klein

There are three three copies of this wonderful book in the Little Library of Rescued Book, and my preferred one is the hardback edition which also has a map of the house in it. Three friends could all read it together if they wanted to. When Patricia (a not so popular but very bright girl) is invited for a weekend away without adult supervision at Genevieve's aunt's house in the country she is flattered. Desperate to fit in at her new school, she goes along hoping to make new friends. However, not all goes to plan, things start to go wrong. The girls discover an old diary and decide to hold a seance. The weather is foul and there are other foul things afoot. Suddenly their game turns into something very sinister. Their nervousness turns to panic...what is happening in the house? This thriller is hard to put down. It is very descriptive so you feel you know the characters and the isolation of the house and you can really feel the tension.

The Body in the Basement by Norah McClintock

This Canadian author was a huge fan of Nancy Drew as I was in my early teens. McClintock writes primarily for 16 year olds . This is is the first book of hers that I have read and I found it very riveting. It was the winner of the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Novel. It is all about a 15 year old girl called Tash who is about to lose all she loves. After a fire, a body is discovered underneath the cafe which Tasha's parents used to own and the police start looking for the murderer. The body turns out to be her mother whom she thought had abandoned her and soon the investigation leads them straight to Tasha's dad. She is devastated but she is sure her dad didn't do it. She tries to find out who did it but it seems everyone seems to have so many secrets to hide. Click on the link under the novel to find out more about the author.

http://www.scholastic.ca/titles/norahmcclintock/aboutnorah.htm

Camp Fear by Carol Ellis

Published in 1993 this book is very American and could classified as a thriller or even horror. It is probably best for a mature reader but is not too over the top as far as the action goes. The prologue begins with the discovery of a body at Camp Silverlake. Then it moves forward in time when eight new counsellors begin preparations for the arrival of the children. Some of the counsellors had actually attended this camp years ago when they were younger. Now seven years on something is haunting them and turning each of their fears into reality. Turns out that the past can't hurt you but it could kill you. The plot is a little predictable but it moves along at a speedy pace. Below is a link to a list of all her other publications:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/e/carol-ellis/