Barry Lyga's Time Will Tell is an intricately plotted, thrilling YA murder mystery that dissects universal anxieties around being and belonging, love and sexuality, friendship and family life.
The story begins in present-day Canterstown, Md., when friends Liam, Elayah, Marcie and Jorja go on a hunt for a time capsule that was buried by their parents in 1986. Soon after unearthing the capsule and exploring its contents, the group finds a bloody knife and a note that reads, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill anyone." This shocking discovery launches the group into an intense investigation to discover the killer's identity. Unbeknownst to the teens, the killer is alive and well and will go to great lengths to make sure the secret never gets out.
Time Will Tell is a story driven by uncertainty. There is the central question of the murderer's identity, but there are also the myriad uncertainties of daily life, which the teens must learn to deal with. Alternating between past and present, Lyga provides a deep, even voyeuristic, look into the lives of his characters. He examines the ways in which they are affected by enduring societal ills like homophobia and racism, and uses podcast transcripts, text messages and social media feeds to explore more contemporary difficulties like information saturation and online gossip. Perhaps most compelling, Lyga launches an attack on rose-tinted nostalgia, instead electing to probe the complexity of memory, reminding the reader that, "Memory... could be sunshine, and memory could be a blade." --Cade Williams, freelance reviewer and staff writer at the Harvard Independent