This first murder mystery in a series will appeal to fans of Allie Carter's Gallagher Girls series, who enjoy a bit of humor and fashion with their detective work.
Debut author Kara Taylor emphasizes the dynamics of a pretty good girl/bad boy attraction. Anne Dowling is not a mean girl, though her sometimes snarky attitude as a New York City private school girl "sentenced" to a Boston boarding school could cause people to think of her as one. She's kind to her roommate, Isabella, and they discover they have some quirky things in common, such as their mutual appreciation for Les Miserables. But Anne's been sent away to boarding school for accidentally setting on fire the auditorium of her Manhattan elite school. As her former headmaster, Bailey, told her, "Trouble has a way of showing up wherever you are, Anne." And now Anne's roommate of less than a week is found in the woods, a victim of a homicide.
Taylor threads the plot with narrator Anne's smart humor. She sizes up her class's queen bee his way: "Alexis is not only a bitch, but a passive-aggressive, Post-it-not-leaving bitch." A detail Anne uncovers early on in the novel, involving an unsolved homicide 30 years ago, links to Isabella's death. Taylor solves the mystery but leaves some open ends for Anne to put to rights in the next book. A guilty pleasure and a fun summer read. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness