All Eyes On Her

All Eyes On Her

YA mystery/thriller
"You heard the story on the news. A girl and a boy went into
the woods. The girl carried a picnic basket. The boy wore bright
yellow running shoes. They weren't planning to be out past dark, but
the sky was pitch black when the girl found her way back, without the
picnic basket and without the boy..."
I'm sure you can guess why the boy isn't with her. His body is
discovered the next day. There are intimations of homicide.
Have you ever experienced a local tragedy or scandal unfolding
over time? News media people dig for exclusive angles to capture the
public's attention. Social media explodes with opinions. People
close and semi close to the main actors share their nuggets of
information and have a wide range of reasons for divulging what they do.
Reading L. E. Flynn's All Eyes On Her is the literary equivalent
of that experience. Although you're given access to excerpts from her
diary and texts, you never, til the end, get to hear from Tabby, the
girl who went into the woods with the boy, Mark, her Princeton
swimming team standout beau. Some of the people you do hear plenty
from are:
*Bridget, her little sister, a competitive runner
"Don't take that the wrong way--I'm not a psychopath. I didn't
fantasize about Mark falling off a cliff and ending up dead. But it's
really no secret that I imagined him just going away. He didn't bring
out the best in my sister."
*Tabby's best friend, Elle
"...There's a horrible, twisted irony to Mark the Shark, felled
by a shallow, muddy creek.
But it's not the article that plucks at my skin, making goose
bumps rise up. It's the comments under it, the ones about Tabby."
*Lou, who is not a big fan of Tabby. Her boyfriend is Tabby's ex who
may not be totally over her.
"I know, it's ridiculous, and it doesn't even make sense. Beck
is with me, and I'm sure he wasn't the one in the poolhouse that
night. But someone was, and I just have this feeling Tabitha wasn't
working alone. A girl like that always gets someone else to do the
dirty work."
And there are others, not to mention the news and social media
stories. You get to weigh the evidence and the credibility of each
perspective. If you're someone who enjoys active engagement in
solving mysteries you'll find All Eyes On Her to be a must read.
On a purrrsonal note,
On a purrrsonal note, well I thought I was having a pretty average
week, going about my pandemic usual, studying statistics, blogging,
writing, binge reading, tending to the needs of family and home,
crafting... In fact the most semi exciting news I thought I had was
that I'm reorganizing food in my kitchen. I was just going to check
the dates and toss out anything expired. But I noticed two areas I
really wanted to change.
1) My canned vegetable cabinet space was crammed. Not only did this
make it impossible to really see what I have, it facililated using new
cans first. So I have stashed the newer cans in an undisclosed
location with only the older ones in the cabinet.
The freezer was even more problematic. It's a top of the fridge one.
Given my unimposing height and my dislike of being conked on the head
by frozen foods, I almost always use new stuff. Now I am making a
major effort to use up the old stuff before it becomes unappetizingly
freezer burned.
In a pandemic with all that can go unexpectedly wrong, usual can be a
very good state of affairs. But I just got a very exciting surprise.
And...
...check out my Monday post if you want to know what it is!!!
(Jules)
We continues to have cold weather and white stuff. That groundhog was
right about six more weeks of winter. Wonder what groundhog tastes
like. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to you, our readers, with best wishes
for a great weekend.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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