NetGalley ARC | Suddenly a Murder

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A locked room mystery (okay, a locked room island) with a 1920s flair is pretty much my favorite thing and this one did not disappoint.

To celebrate graduating from high school, best friends Izzy and Kassidy are joined by five friends on an island getaway. Their destination is Ashwood Manor, where they will dress up in glamorous 20s digs and party like it's (still the rich months of) 1929. Anything not available in the 1920s is out of bounds, meaning of course, no cell phones.

We have Izzy, whose family is not wealthy. She's a scholarship kid who attends their wealthy private school at reduced cost since her mom is a teacher there.

Kassidy planned the entire event, a week-long celebration where she may or may not have intended to murder someone.

Blaine, the victim and Kassidy's boyfriend, not so great since he can't stop cheating on her - and perhaps one or two guests are those he cheated with.

The group is rounded out with Chloe, Ellison, Fergus and Marlowe. Each have various degrees of connection to Kassidy, but to say much else would spoil some important plot points.

It's all fun and games - except it's not. There are little spots of tension building up between various characters, that finally boil over when Blaine is murdered and we quickly find there are plenty of reasons that any of the guests would have wanted him dead. Everyone is a suspect and as the detectives arrive, their number one is Izzy - because she's the one who brought the knife.

When a storm rolls through there's no way to leave the island, so the six suspects are interrogated and the detectives can see that everyone is lying. The story then proceeds over several days as they are trapped with a murderer and have to figure out who the culprit is.

I always try to be a little more lenient when it comes to YA thrillers, because teenagers are dumb. It's not meant to be an insult, they just are. Their brains are not fully developed yet. But the one thing that did bug me is that you have six incredibly wealthy kids, plus Izzy. Not a single one asked for their lawyer, and just agreed to be interviewed? There's just no way.

One of the strong points of the novel is the mini-conflicts between various characters. It really helped sell the fact that this group is actually a lot closer than it would appear on the surface. Most of the teens have known each other nearly all their lives - so there's plenty of secrets, anger, betrayals, and more to parse through. But in turn, that just complicates everything for the detectives because everyone had a motive and opportunity.

While the novel is not perfect, it is a fantastic debut. I still went with five stars just because it was so much fun, and contained so many elements that I love about YA mysteries and thrillers.

Highly, highly recommended.