You'll be the Death of Me by Karen McManus

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Back in middle school they were best friends. So, when Cal pulls into campus late for class, and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They'll ditch school and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Why did they stop hanging out, anyway?

As soon as they pull out of the parking lot Cal knows why. Ivy's already freaking out about missing class, and heartthrob Mateo is asleep in the backseat, too cool to even pretend like he wants to be there. The truth is they have nothing in common anymore.

At least they don't until they run into the fourth student ditching school that day. Brian "Boney" Mahoney is supposed to be accepting his newly won office of class president. Which is why Ivy follows him into an empty building, only to walk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and now they need to come clean. They're all hiding something. And maybe their chance reconnection wasn't by chance after all.

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Here's the difficulty with reviewing Karen McManus books; her first book was so amazing, so clever and fantastic, it set the bar really, really high. So books like this, that if written by anyone else would be brilliant, just - feel a bit of a let down. Still really clever, well done, great insights into characters, but just - not as good. Which is unfair to Karen, because this really is good.

As often happens, it took me a while to tell the characters apart. Once I got them down, though, I enjoyed the different points of view. It is a good way to show different parts of the same story unfolding. The story flew by quickly as I wanted to find out what was going to happen and whodunnit.

Spoiler: I was disappointed to see that I couldn't have figured out whodunnit, as none of the characters ever interacted with them. It feels a little bit like a cheat. However maybe other people did figure it out - kudos if you did!

I enjoyed this very much and I'm looking forward to seeing what Karen does next - I know there's a sequel to Lying coming along, but hopefully the one after that will be a sequel to this one! I can't wait to see what happens next.

You'll Be The Death Of Me publishes on the 30th of November, 2021 in the US (lower image) and on the 2nd of December, 2021 in the UK (top image). I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.