Author: rachelthelibrarian

In the town of Firview, high school senior Layla Trello goes missing during a Halloween party, and is found dead nearly two weeks afterward. Seventeen years later, Piper Gray, a fan of the true-crime podcast “Dead, Deader, Deadest” decides to host a podcast of her own covering said murder for her senior passion project. Helped by fellow senior Jonas Shortridge, Piper starts digging for information on exactly what happened seventeen years ago. Unfortunately for her, all of the people she interview each have their version of the incident to tell, and she doesn’t have much time to piece the full story together. Somebody is threatening her, meaning that the killer is still on the loose, and it looks like they have a new victim to go after. Everybody in the town has secrets, including Piper herself, and revealing them might end up with her dead.

The concept for the story and the synopsis sounded original and I was intrigued, but the actual book was quite lackluster and empty. It felt like the author was trying too hard to make the main character, Piper, come off as quirky and different, and it just seemed like another one of those “I’m not like other girls” scenarios. Not only this, but many scenes had too many unnecessary details in them that made it cluttered and hard to keep track of what was going on; a common example of this was that one or more characters would be doing something unrelated to the plot between conversations. The plot twists, while unexpected, didn’t seem to have anything leading up to them. Most of the evidence that supposedly revealed the murderer felt lazy and unoriginal, and the murderer’s reason for killing Layla Trello was even worse. Piper’s secret was a bit better, but the plot twist seemed to be there just so there would be drama in the story, and it wasn’t needed at all. I don’t think it would be too much of a spoiler to say that there is a romance between Piper and Jonas; however, it barely seemed like anything happened between them. Sure, there was the occasional mention of how Piper wanted to spend more time with Jonas, but there wasn’t too much about it until they suddenly kissed. While I do know that love isn’t the main focus of the book since it’s a murder mystery, I think that there could’ve been more thought and planning put into it, rather than just having two characters kiss for no reason. Most of these are just my personal opinions, and while I do think it has a lot of flaws, if someone who was younger and/or was new to the murder mystery genre read this, they would probably enjoy it better than I did.

One thing that felt memorable about the book was how it included information about podcasting. I could see that Henry had researched how they worked, and I felt like I learned something when reading about them. Parts of the story were even written as if they were podcast transcripts, which provided a unique experience. All the parts of the book that had some sort of podcasting in them were something that you don’t encounter in your average murder mystery and helped make this book feel one-of-a-kind.

Reviewed by Mu Zhen Y., Twin Hickory Area Library

Izzy has always loved studying the culture of the 1920s through books and movies, especially her favorite murder mysteries. As a graduation present, her best friend Kassidy gifts her and five friends with a week on an isolated island in which they intend to spend the week acting out the 1920s. However, when one of their friends is murdered, the island becomes a trap. Izzy and her surviving friends are held on the island in a weeklong interrogation with two detectives because a terrible storm is preventing travel from the island. Each of the friends has a motive, and it is only so long until the detectives will find what they are hiding.

I really enjoyed this book because it was different from other books of the genre. Despite undergoing a murder investigation where they have no escape from the constant watch of the detectives, the characters all stuck together loyally instead of betraying each other like one would expect in such a high-stress environment. Each of the characters had a very plausible motive, which I appreciated because usually when reading murder mysteries the culprit becomes obvious right away, but in this book I was genuinely guessing until the end. I also enjoyed how the detectives were given real personalities outside of the investigation, unlike how in most books detectives are portrayed as cold, flat characters in order to signify the cruelty of the criminal justice system. Finally, I enjoyed the effective blend of well-researched 1920s culture with modern day life. I would recommend this book to fans of murder mysteries, those who enjoy reading about powerful friendships that can survive anything, and people who enjoy learning about the 1920s. However, I will caution that this book was not seriously researched regarding all of the nuances and different aspects of the 1920s. The author pays tribute to popular music, movies, fashion, and dance of the time period, but it is not a historical novel.

One memorable thing about this book was that every character seemed like they could be the killer. Each of them had evidence pointing to their involvement, they all had realistic motives, and they all had alibis, so this book truly keeps the audience guessing someone different on every page.

Reviewed by Caitlin F., Glen Allen Library