Friday, April 9, 2021

Book review - The Murder Game

 

Title: The Murder Game

Author: Carrie Doyle

Genre: Mystery

Similar books: Scared Little Rabbits by A.V. Geiger

                      The Girl in the Picture by Alexandra Monir

Rating:

definitely not my favorite

Summary (provided by publisher): What if your best friend and roommate killed a teacher at your prep school? Or what if he didn’t do it, but he’s being framed, and you’re the only person who can save him? What if you aren’t sure which it is?
Luke Chase didn’t mean to get caught up solving the mystery of Mrs. Heckler’s murder. He just wanted to meet up with the new British girl at their boarding school, and if that meant sneaking out to the woods after hours, then so be it.
Little did he know someone would end up dead right next to their rendezvous spot, and his best friend and roommate Oscar Weymouth would go down for it. With suspects aplenty and a past that’s anything but innocent, Luke Chase calls on his famous survival skills to solve the mystery and find the true killer. With plenty of suspects, Luke will need to use all his skills to solve the mystery and find the true killer.

My opinion: I frankly don't understand the fixation on boarding schools in teen fiction. They don't reflect the experience of most readers. Is it aspirational? In the case of this book, the school has a lot of rules and supervises students more than is typical of these stories. That means that this book could as easily have taken place in any small town, no boarding school needed. I could accept the setting if the mystery were more compelling. But we don't meet the victim before her death. We have no emotional connection to her, or to any of the characters really. There are no stakes in the mystery. And while the police are not shown as useless (a frequent problem in novels) their plan is needlessly convoluted. On the whole, this one didn't make enough sense to me.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

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