Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black

Title: Girl at the Grave

Author: Teri Bailey Black

My Rating: 4 stars

I've had this young adult book for a while and finally got around to reading it, and then still I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get into it. Once I started though, it went by so quickly and and I engaged and excited. It turned out to be a nice, kind of spooky, murder mystery, perfect for October!

It is the set in the 1800's. Valentine is a teen girl who is a bit of an outsider, but not for the typical reasons one might be. Her mother was hanged when she was a little girl for murdering a man, who was a prominent member of society. The man's son, Rowan, is now a classmate of Valentine's, and he tends to watch her closely, in contempt she thinks.

Soon after the book starts Valentine finds out her mother was innocent, but the person who tells her this turns up dead, and it may have been murder. Surprisingly Rowan wants to help her find out who the new murderer is ; meanwhile Valentine's dad and another townsperson also come up missing.

There is a also a love triangle between Valentine, her friend Sam, and Rowan.

I'm a little tired of love triangles, but this one was handled fairly well. The murder mystery was engaging for me, and my guesses about the killer were wrong, so it's not immediately obvious. There are twists and turns, likeable and unlikeable characters. Some characters demeanors changes, making you question whether they are the killer, but their shifts in personality aren't entirely uncalled for.

I was a little unsure about Valentine though. I do tend to have problems with the main female characters in most books and tv shows, and this was no different. My problem with Valentine was just that she was so convinced that the murderer was this one person, and I felt like she was blinded and couldn't see that she had no real evidence to blame that person. There were other people who could have been suspects.

It was still a very good book, and I recommend it for teens and adults!

Comments

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