Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of A Reunion to Die For by Lauren Carr. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
A Reunion to Die For by Lauren Carr
A Joshua Thornton Mystery
Five Star (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59414-548-2 (1594145482)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-548-3 (9781594145483)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $25.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Murder reveals all secrets. Gail Reynolds left Chester, West Virginia, to become a hard-hitting investigative journalist and never looked back. Twenty years later, no one is more surprised than Joshua Thornton when she returns to write a book about the long-ago death of classmate Tricia Wheeler. Before Gail has time to unpack her laptop, a second girl is killed and the small town finds itself in the midst of a killing spree. When Gail is added to the body count, her death reveals a deeply kept secret that casts a shadow of suspicion on Joshua. Suddenly, the newly elected county prosecutor finds his own name at the top of the list of murder suspects.
Review: Lauren Carr's second mystery featuring West Virginia district attorney Joshua Thornton, A Reunion to Die For, reunites classmates 20 years after their high school graduation only to have the past meet the present ... with a murder.
Twenty-one years earlier in October of 1984, a very popular cheerleader, Tricia Wheeler, was found dead in her home by her mother. As there seemed to be little or no evidence to support any other theory, Tricia’s death was ruled suicide. Now, twenty years later, a high school classmate reveals that she has written a book that will tell the true story of what happened to Tricia. Soon after her announcement another popular cheerleader, Grace Henderson, is found dead. This time there is proof of murder. Josh Thornton, a graduate of Oak Glen High School and once a good friend of Tricia, becomes involved in the investigation of the crime. When he views the body of Grace, still dressed in her cheerleaders outfit as was Tricia when she died, memories flood in. He was too young to question her death in 1984, but now he wonders: Could it have been murder? The information or lack thereof concerning both girl’s deaths bring about more questions than answers.
The old divisions of high school remain today: the boys were either jocks or nerds, the girls were either "in" or "out". For Josh, this investigation means dealing with people who were like him in high school, and those who were not. But he soon finds more suspects than victims, more enemies than friends, and not enough concrete clues to take to court so an arrest can be made.
Then it gets worse when Josh, himself, becomes a suspect in the murder. At one point, he says, "It's difficult to keep track of the players." And that's the most significant problem with A Reunion to Die For: there are far too many characters. It's almost impossible to keep track of who did what to whom for what reason and when it happened. The intersecting plots at times are so complex the temptation is to simply skip forward a few pages, over the sometimes tedious narrative.
A Reunion to Die For isn't necessarily a bad mystery, simply an over-written one. A tighter plot, far fewer characters, and considerable editing would have done wonders here.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of A Reunion to Die For and to Breakthrough Promotions for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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