Under Cover: Time to check in and see what our detectives are reading!

 
Diana Renn: I recently read BREAKING BEAUTIFUL, by debut author Jennifer Shaw Wolf. I was immediately drawn in by the horrifying premise: Allie's boyfriend, Trip, went over a cliff in his truck the night of a dance they attended. With no body or truck (both were swept away by the ocean), Allie -- broken down physically and psychologically from her relationship and from that awful night -- must piece together what happened to Trip, and find out who killed him, partly to take the spotlight off her friend Blake, a suspect. An unconventional sleuth, Allie relies partly on clues that surface in unlikely places, and partly on her own sketchy memories of that night. More memories -- including of her abusive relationship with Trip -- resurface as the story goes on. Readers will root for the return of Allie's inner strength as much as they root for the answer to the mystery. I enjoyed the atmospheric Washington state setting, the rich cast of characters, and the plot's many twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. We're hauling Jennifer Shaw Wolf into the Interrogation Room next Wednesday, 5/23, to find out how she did it!


 
Elisa Ludwig: I'm reading EVERY YOU, EVERY ME by David Levithan. I love the way he uses photographs as clues in this lyrical, enigmatic mystery about Evan, a boy who mourns the loss of his best friend (and love interest), Ariel. Each new photograph that appears in his path seems to point to the fact that someone is stalking him, someone who knows more than he should about Evan and Ariel. It's chilling and moving all at once.



W.H. Beck: I recently finished GRAVE MERCY by R. L. LaFevers. While not technically a mystery, there's plenty of suspense and intrigue! Ismae is a nun in a convent serving the god of death in medieval France. And as death's handmaiden, she is a trained assassin. For one of her very first assignments, she is sent to to protect the future duchess of Brittany, whose duchy is on the brink of war with France. Only once she gets to the duchess's castle, she finds it is bubbling over with political plots--some of which test her faith in her god and in herself.