Book Review: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman

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The Meadowbrook Murders  by Jessica Goodman  is a young adult novel published on February 4, 2025. The story opens with the character Amy discovering the bodies of her classmates, Sarah and Ryan, who are undoubtedly deceased. Told from alternating perspectives of Amy and Liz, both students are trying to find out who and why someone would want to murder two students at a prestigious boarding school. I received an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for free in exchange for my honest review. When the story first began, I thought it was taking place at a college or university before I realized it took place at a boarding school. Other than that slight confusion, this suspenseful mystery captured my attention from the very beginning and had me on the edge of my seat. Both of the main characters were vastly different from one another but were likable in their own way. Unfortunately, other than Amy and Liz, the only o...

Book Review: Back to School Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #4) by Leslie Meier

book review back to school murder leslie meier

Back to School Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #4) by Leslie Meier opens with Lucy Stone temping at the local newspaper office when she hears that a bomb threat has been called into the elementary school. When a teacher realizes one of the students is unaccounted for, the vice principal rushes back into the school to save him. However, she's found murdered a few days later. Who would want her dead?

What I loved about this particular edition in the Lucy Stone Mystery series is that there were a lot of red herrings. I felt sure that a specific character was the murdered for most of the story, but as Back to School Murder progressed, I changed my mind and ended up being completely wrong on everyone I suspected. Leslie Meier did a fabulous job with all the suspects and keeping me guessing.

One of the situations I found believable was that Lucy was feeling unappreciated and unattractive, and when she received a bit of attention from another man, she feel for it and felt bad about it afterwards. The reason I found this plausible is because marriages do go through their ups and downs. Another believable situation was the agenda that the Reverend wanted to implement religious teachings into the public school system, which is something I've seen happen in real life. The portrayal of the religious community in this book may offend some people though.

However, there were a few things that frustrated me about this particular book. The most notable thing that irked me was Lucy's husband Bill because he was written as extremely old fashioned. Bill didn't want Lucy working and wanted her home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the kids. He didn't seem to care that she loved working. Another thing that annoyed me was that when events from previous books were mentioned, there was an asterisk and a footnote mentioning which book it took place in . . . however, whoever was editing must of used "find and replace" because the same book was mentioned when the events took place in different books. 

Four out of five stars is the rating I gave Back to School Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #4) by Leslie Meier. If you enjoyed this book, you may enjoy Murder Buys A T-Shirt (A Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery #1) by Christy Fifield.

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