When I decided to make this month's blog focus on mysteries, I wondered, what's the difference between thriller, suspense and mystery novels? Asking AI, I learned in a thriller the protagonist is in danger from the outset. In suspense novels the main character may become aware of danger only gradually. In a mystery, the reader is exposed to the same information as the protagonist/detective to solve a crime. The three books I'm reviewing this month all have elements of mysteries. In The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss the main character, whose sister was murdered in season four of a TV show called The Escape Game, competes in season five, hoping to find her murderer. Whispers of Sea Glass by Wendy Lynn Decker is described as a historical mystery. Set in Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1958, Ivy Munroe investigated the head nun at her catholic school, hoping to find something that would convince her parents to transfer her to public school. Although Megan Lally's What We Did to Survive is advertised as a survivalist thriller, it also has elements of a mystery. Hannah and Emmy are vacationing with their families in Mexico. When they go out for a sail with Ben, a boy Emmy just met, they get caught in a storm. But the sketchy captain and Ben turn out to be as dangerous as the weather.
The Escape Game, the first book in a new series, begins with season four of a teen reality TV show, which ended with the shocking discovery of a dead body. Alicia was a player in the vampire-themed escape room. In season five her sister Sierra, who was suspected of killing her sister, is back, determined to solve the murder. Her team, Team Helsing, includes Carter, star of the show’s fan-run website, Beck, a trans-boy, and Aditya, a bookworm pushed into the series by his mother. The clues to this mystery are woven with several escape room puzzles that the team must solve.
Whispers of Sea Glass introduces Ivy Jean
Munroe who longs to go to public rather than Catholic school. Inspired by women of espionage novels, she
investigates the school’s domineering head nun, whom she sees in civilian
clothes, suspecting she’s running a house of prostitution. She enlists the help
of Stella, a troublemaker at school. Her
investigation leads her into troubles she could not even imagine.
In What We Did to Survive Hannah joins her best friend Emmy’s family for a spring break in Mexico. Hannah is heading off to nursing school, and Emmy, the more adventurous of the two, is going to travel the world, so they are celebrating before they go separate ways. Emmy meets wealthy Ben who invites her on a sailing excursion. He agrees to include Hannah and Emmy’s brother Jackson, whom Hannah has had a crush on since childhood. Because of predicted storms, no reputable company will take them, so Ben hires a private sailboat with a sketchy captain. After a surprisingly carefree day on the water, they lose their captain in a mishap just as the storm hits and Ben shows his true colors. Each chapter ends on a cliffhanger, adding to the tension created by the weather and the relationships between the people onboard.
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