Bad Things Happen Here is an intriguing and amazingly written YA murder mystery. It is set on an island of extremely wealthy people where horrible and unexplainable disappearances happen but the consciousness of the society sweeps it all under the rug. It is a twisted tale in both the story itself and the characters, the lead protagonist is flawed, mentally ill and haunted by loss, but yet unlike other books, this does not undermine her character, but instead strengthens Luca.
Not a Happy Family is a domestic thriller full of deceit and uncertainty. One Easter dinner with a dysfunctional family has turned into a murder case with a long list of suspects. Everyone has a motive; nobody has an alibi. With inheritance being thrown around between family members the tension rises for everyone. But one question is left unanswered: Who killed them?
The Pact, by Jodi Picoult, is a crime and romance fiction novel. Emily and Chris were close childhood friends, who formed a relationship in their teen years. Their families thought they would spend their lives together, until Emily ends up dead and Chris in the hospital one night. The families are shocked to hear that Emily had been shot, even more so when authorities rule it a suicide. The police suggest that Chris shot Emily, leading to a murder investigation.
One of Us Is Next is the sequel to One of Us Is Lying. This book follows the same town and now the side characters are the main ones. This one features a dangerous game of “Truth or Dare”.
Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson is not only the sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder but also an intriguing continuation of Pip’s hunt to seek out justice in her town. When her neighbor and former friend Jamie Reynolds goes missing, she is determined to find clues and possible suspects that can lead her back to him.
In the Lake of the Woods is a novel that takes the reader through a series of flashbacks to tell the story of John Wade, a wannabe American politician who served in the Vietnam War. His story includes the disappearance of his wife Kathy Wade, and throughout the story the reader is given information about her disappearance to indicate whether or not John played a part in it. John wants a fulfilling life for him and his wife, which he believes can be achieved through getting elected into the US Senate.
The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes gives us more insight on the mysterious Hawthorne-Grambs investigation that we waited for ever since reading The Inheritance Games. With the incoming news that Tobias’s brother might not be dead after all, Avery and the Hawthorne grandsons are thrown into another reckless trek to find out more information.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a thrilling YA mystery about a murder that no one seems to care about - except the main character, Pippa, of course. Every senior at her high school is meant to do a Capstone Project, a big research endeavor that concludes their high school experience. Pippa, always the overachieving journalist, chooses to do hers on the “case-closed” murder that occurred five years ago.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson is about a girl named Pippa who decides to reopen a closed local murder case for her senior capstone project and tries to find the “real” killer. She quickly becomes engulfed in her investigation and is met with lots of people that don’t want her digging up the past.
Crystal Donovan is a teen girl who finds herself drawn into a dangerous game with her sister as the price for failure. She’s forced to complete seemingly random tasks and is told her sister will die if she doesn’t. At first it seems random, until she realizes each task is meant to kill one of her friends. In the midst of the chaos this twisted scheme is causing she fights to figure out if this is all over a game tournament, or something deeper from her past.
