YA chiller
"As she winked out of consciousness, Stevie caught the tail end of a realization. She knew the emotion she'd seen playing over Angela's features as she'd been telling her story. It wasn't sadness about what had happened, or annoyance that she was being prodded to tell a traumatic story to a bunch of teenagers in her house.
It was fear."
Awhile back we first encountered Stevie, protagonist of a series by Maureen Johnson. She had been on a summer vacation then. She and her best prep school friends had, in The Box in the Woods, learned that a summer camp can pose serious danger to those investigating its secrets.
Now they're back in school. Stevie isn't having good times. A sleuth in training, she's solved a major mystery and has none to take its place. Unlike most of her college applying peers, she has no clue what she wants to do with her life other than solve mysteries.
Her break happens when Stevie's boyfriend, David, invites Stevie and her friends to visit in him in England where he's going to school. Somehow they manage to convince the head of their school, Ellingham Academy, that it will be a study week. They leave with a schedule jam packed with tours of historic places and other educational events...
...which will be abandoned. Izzy, a new English acquaintance, tells her about close friends of her aunt being killed. Angela and her eight best friends, having just graduated from college, were celebrating by partying at the estate owned by one of their families. The first night they'd engaged in an all out hide and seek game. In the wee hours of the morning a total power outage had driven all but two inside. Hours later the two were discovered in a wood shed hacked to death by an axe. The mystery was never solved.
Izzy brings them all over to her aunt's home for a meal. Angela is obviously not expecting company. She's even more blind sided when she learns the reason for their visit. Stevie manages to trick her into giving them more details...
...and then Angela goes missing. Izzy shares a text showing that Angela was arranging a get together with the still alive members of her college set to talk about "what happened" when she vanished. Now in a short time Stevie must locate the missing aunt and solve a decades old case at the scene of the crime surrounding by the now six, one of whom may be the killer. Maybe willing to murder again if she gets too close to the truth...
...all while keeping the snoopy head of her school in the dark about what's really going on. If you're a chiller lover you'll really want to get your hands on the book.
I have a mandate too: to acquire the first three books in the series, read them, and let you know if they're as awesome as the two we're familiar with. My spring break...
...and Daylight Savings Time--oh joy, oh joy, OH JOY!!!...
start next weekend. Good books, Peeps, candy, some snacks, and my good cat to snuggle with. Life just doesn't get better than that.
On a purrrsonal note, the weather is being weird, even for Maine. We've had two big old snow storms Thursday night and Saturday. Now it feels like spring. That old groundhog got it right when he predicted six more weeks of winter. (Jules)
I'm glad I don't have to go out in that mess. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to all the blizzard battlers who clear our streets and parking lots.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
No comments:
Post a Comment