4 Stars
Welcome to this week’s episode of Conversations with Kelly and Mr. Kelly.
KELLY: Hey, get me THIS when you’re at Wal-Mart:
HUSBAND: Why do you need yarn?
KELLY: Don’t worry about it.
HUSBAND: I have the power this time around. I won’t buy it if you don’t tell me.
KELLY: I need it to make a murder board.
HUSBAND: What’s a . . . . . you know what? Never mind. I’ll get your yarn.
And then I went in for my one day in the actual office and made a murder board on my lunch break . . . .
Now on to the book. Five years ago Andie Bell went missing and when her boyfriend Sal Singh promptly offed himself it was just assumed he did it and the case was closed, despite never finding Andie’s body. Pip chooses to take this unsolved mystery on as her senior project. She’s old enough to realize in most cases the simplest answer is the correct one (and, come on, the husband/boyfriend always did it, right?), she has some theories she wants to research in order to get an A and her shoe-in to early admission at Columbia. Said theories?
(1) “A third party killed Andie, but Sal was somehow involved, like an accessory after the fact, helped bury the body. His guilt leads him to suicide, and the evidence found on him implicates him as the perpetrator, even though he isn’t the one who killed her. The actual killer is still at large.”
(2) “A third party killed Andie, and Sal had no involvement or awareness at all. His suicide days later wasn’t motivated by a murderer’s guilt, but maybe by a multitude of factors, including the stress of his girlfriend’s disappearance. The evidence found on him—the blood and the phone—have an entirely innocent explanation and are unrelated to her murder.”
(3) “Andie is murdered by a third party on the Friday. The killer knows that Sal, as Andie’s boyfriend, would make the perfect suspect. Especially as Sal seems to have no alibi for over two hours that night. The killer murders Sal and makes it look like a suicide. They plant the blood and the phone on his body.”
(4) “Theory four is the most far-fetched of the lot.” She took a deep breath and did it in one. “No one killed Andie Bell, because she isn’t dead. She faked her disappearance and then lured Sal out into the woods, murdered him, and dressed it up as a suicide. She planted her own phone and blood on him so that everyone believed she was dead. Maybe she needed to disappear for some reason.”
So there you have it in a nutshell. Are any of these theories close to being accurate? Or was the case truly as open and shut as the police believed.
I hate to say things like “for young adult, this was real good” because I read a lot of young adult and a lot of it is real good. That being said, this might be “real good” even for people who don’t generally pick up YA. The mystery was solid, as was the writing, the pacing was great and it didn’t get super Scooby Doo. Of course, the characters did put themselves in harm’s way like morons occasionally and didn’t face nearly as many obstacles obtaining information/putting two and two together as would likely happen in the real world, but hey it ain’t true crime so that can’t really be a complaint as far as I’m concerned. This required waaaaaay less suspension of disbelief than the majority of whodunits I’ve read.
KELLY: Hey, get me THIS when you’re at Wal-Mart:
HUSBAND: Why do you need yarn?
KELLY: Don’t worry about it.
HUSBAND: I have the power this time around. I won’t buy it if you don’t tell me.
KELLY: I need it to make a murder board.
HUSBAND: What’s a . . . . . you know what? Never mind. I’ll get your yarn.
And then I went in for my one day in the actual office and made a murder board on my lunch break . . . .
Now on to the book. Five years ago Andie Bell went missing and when her boyfriend Sal Singh promptly offed himself it was just assumed he did it and the case was closed, despite never finding Andie’s body. Pip chooses to take this unsolved mystery on as her senior project. She’s old enough to realize in most cases the simplest answer is the correct one (and, come on, the husband/boyfriend always did it, right?), she has some theories she wants to research in order to get an A and her shoe-in to early admission at Columbia. Said theories?
(1) “A third party killed Andie, but Sal was somehow involved, like an accessory after the fact, helped bury the body. His guilt leads him to suicide, and the evidence found on him implicates him as the perpetrator, even though he isn’t the one who killed her. The actual killer is still at large.”
(2) “A third party killed Andie, and Sal had no involvement or awareness at all. His suicide days later wasn’t motivated by a murderer’s guilt, but maybe by a multitude of factors, including the stress of his girlfriend’s disappearance. The evidence found on him—the blood and the phone—have an entirely innocent explanation and are unrelated to her murder.”
(3) “Andie is murdered by a third party on the Friday. The killer knows that Sal, as Andie’s boyfriend, would make the perfect suspect. Especially as Sal seems to have no alibi for over two hours that night. The killer murders Sal and makes it look like a suicide. They plant the blood and the phone on his body.”
(4) “Theory four is the most far-fetched of the lot.” She took a deep breath and did it in one. “No one killed Andie Bell, because she isn’t dead. She faked her disappearance and then lured Sal out into the woods, murdered him, and dressed it up as a suicide. She planted her own phone and blood on him so that everyone believed she was dead. Maybe she needed to disappear for some reason.”
So there you have it in a nutshell. Are any of these theories close to being accurate? Or was the case truly as open and shut as the police believed.
I hate to say things like “for young adult, this was real good” because I read a lot of young adult and a lot of it is real good. That being said, this might be “real good” even for people who don’t generally pick up YA. The mystery was solid, as was the writing, the pacing was great and it didn’t get super Scooby Doo. Of course, the characters did put themselves in harm’s way like morons occasionally and didn’t face nearly as many obstacles obtaining information/putting two and two together as would likely happen in the real world, but hey it ain’t true crime so that can’t really be a complaint as far as I’m concerned. This required waaaaaay less suspension of disbelief than the majority of whodunits I’ve read.
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