Stevie has quickly become one of my favourite sleuths. The way her mind works, spinning theories, inconsistencies, troubling leads and details, while also trying to keep her friendships and school work afloat. She does not hide her social insecurities, and often needs to ask others what she has said or done wrong. She is realistic, flawed, but wonderful. The Ellingham case surprised me right up until the end, all the little pieces falling together to show how the clues Stevie uses to find the truth came to be in her possession. The case haunted everyone within the Ellingham circle; friends, family and servants alike. The truth behind it was not exactly surprising, but it kept the reader intrigued to find out all of the details and to follow along with Stevie as she worked everything out for herself. I also guessed the mastermind behind the murders taking place in the present. However, Stevie compiling the evidence and using the "gather all the suspects in one room" trope was genius. Especially, when she turns that tired trope on its head for her benefit. The classic whodunnit never saw a spunky hero like Stevie coming. The plot, the motive, it all made sense and was believable (in a fictional world way). I was quite frustrated with the relationship between Stevie and David. That does not mean it was a bad relationship, it just means at times I was invested and at other times I felt they were better off apart. Both of the characters suffer from trust issues, from social pressure/anxiety, from controlling parents, and they both lack the ability to communicate maturely. They are teenagers, and as such, their emotions often get the better of them and their inability to be civil or communicate made a sad sort of sense. Personally, I would have loved more of Nate. He was such an endearing character. He does not hide who he is, he is honest, he is not embarrassed by his introverted-ness, and he truly cares about the friends he has made. He is Stevie's sounding board, helping her to work through her theories, insecurities, and is the voice of reason when Stevie and David are together. He is also a writer, a nerd, and the BEST! The audiobook was well done, the narrator for the series making Stevie and her friends sympathetic and the story intriguing. I especially enjoyed how the final pages of the book, a mix of newspaper articles, blog posts, and emails, worked well to tie in the first book, which began with a badly written poem. The last book in this series is by far the best! TW: immurement, explosives, death of a child, death, murder, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, anxiety, hiding a dead body, attempted murder, accidental death, buried alive, trapped
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