Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor

Anne Dowling may have accidentally set fire to her school's auditorium and gotten kicked out but that doesn't mean her parents have to ship her off to boarding school. But they do and she finds herself having a decent time until her roommate is murdered. The school doesn't seem interested in finding the murderer, just on pretending everyone is safe. Not one to leave things alone, Anne goes in search of who killed her roommate and finds that her roommate is not as innocent as she appeared and that the school is covering up a multitude of secrets.

I don't stick around to hand out explanations. I abandon my chicken salad and take off after Zach. He's fast, but my ever-unflinching willingness to cause a huge scene give me the upper hand her. p. 199 ARC

Here's what I learned. 1. Don't read murder mysteries before bed even if they are YA and you think you are safe. Sometimes they are creepier than you think. 2. This is going to be a series and I'm pretty excited about that. I love a good mystery series and this one has more real elements than a lot of other YA mysteries that I have read. 3. That's about all.

While I did find some parts of this book stretch the imagination a bit far, I was still okay with that. It was amazing the amount of cover-up Anne found as she searched for Isabella's killer. I guess a school as old and prestigious as the Wheatley School would have a lot of secrets. Still it is amazing the lengths that Anne goes to when trying to find her roommate's murder. I was surprised by whodunit because there were very few clues left in that direction. Usually there is at least a little foreshadowing involved. But I enjoyed the mystery and I enjoyed the characters. Anne is bold and brash and an all around cool girl. The love triangle felt a bit forced with her but the guys are pretty awesome. Between the beautiful Brent and the bad boy Anthony, twin brother of Isabella, Anne had a lot to choose from. I assume these relationships will develop further with the series. I love that her last name is Dowling and I wonder if that is a nod to the Father Dowling mysteries. I guess she is going to be sticking around Wheatley since the next book seems to follow a decades old mystery that was touch on in this book.


Received from Netgalley for review.
Publish date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin