A 27-year-old woman with a week to live races to solve her own murder in Holly Jackson's twisty, addictive Not Quite Dead Yet. Characterized by the same propulsive plotting as her young adult novels, Jackson's first foray into thrillers for adult readers is a stunner.
When Jet Mason returns to her family's home after the annual Halloween festival they host, she's bludgeoned from behind and left for dead. Jet wakes up in the hospital and learns that she has two choices: immediate surgery that will almost certainly kill her, or a deadly aneurysm that will kill her in a week.
Jet chooses to skip surgery and use her last week of life to find her attacker. Was it her ex-boyfriend, who left town the night she was attacked? One of the many people with reasons to hate her powerful family? Or could it be someone even closer to home? As she searches for clues, she finds more questions--and more crimes.
Jackson (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder) has crafted a layered whodunit, with several leads that result in shocking betrayals and an ending that will leave readers gasping. Jet is a wisecracking protagonist who dishes out morbid humor to balance her anger, and there's an unexpected bittersweetness in the caretaking relationship that develops with her sleuthing partner, Billy, Jet's childhood best friend who is the son of a local police officer.
Jackson's legions of fans will love Not Quite Dead Yet, but the novel is sure to win the author a new readership as well. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer