This Book Kills

Publication Date: September 2024 | Thanks NetGalleyfor an ARC

Overall Verdict: If you can get passed some too convenient coincidences, this is an entertaining boarding school murder mystery.

3.5/5 Stars

Book Summary: As one of the few scholarship students at an elite boarding school, Jess has tried to keep her head down and work hard. When one of her fellow classmates is murdered, it comes to light that it occurred exactly as one of Jess’s short stories she wrote for class. With her future on the line, Jess teams up with other students to figure out what happened all while receiving death threats from the murderer. As their investigation continues, secrets are revealed and everyone has the possibility of becoming a suspect…or the next in line to be murdered.

My Analysis: This one turned out much better than I anticipated after reading the synopsis and the first 20% of the book. It actually had me stumped on who was behind the murders, which is saying something. My biggest hang up with this one was how juvenile some of the writing was geared. It seemed unnecessary to me to have silly character names and to keep over using the same phrases (Er…) to the point it detracts from the story. I did appreciate that there were layers of complexity when it came to characters secrets and wasn’t quite as straight forward of a murder mystery as I had thought. There were of course some events that seemed like a little too much of a coincidence than it would be in reality, but if you can look beyond that it was entertaining. The characters were mostly interesting and the author did do a nice job of making everyone seem like a suspect. I was invested in wanting to know what happened next. If you like murder mysteries and/or boarding school stories, give this one a read.