Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus - HIGH

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus, 327 pages.  Delacorte Press, 2019.  $20. 

Content: Language: R (87 swears; 15 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH 

Ellery and her twin brother, Ezra, are moving to Echo Ridge to live with their grandmother.  Echo Ridge has had two notorious murders in their history around the same time that Ellery’s mother lived there, one of which was Ellery’s aunt.  Ellery loves a good mystery and finds herself trying to piece together the historical murder case, when another girl goes missing.  All of the old suspects still live in Echo Ridge, including a boy, named Malcolm, whose brother was the prime suspect and is a social pariah.  Ellery tries to connect what she knows about the old cases and link it to the new case, with the help of Ezra and Malcolm.  

This book has a lot of good twists and turns and is unpredictable until the end.  I liked Ellery, but the character development in general isn’t very deep.  The content includes a dead body a couple of crass comments.  If you have readers who loved One of Us is Lying, they will be drawn to this read as well.   

Reviewer, C. Peterson