Karen M. McManus writes some of my favourite YA thrillers.
They just do not miss?! Ever?!? I always love how interesting the characters are, plus the mysteries are extremely twisty with so many trails to follow, it keeps my brain spinning happily. Addictive and always satisfying. Nothing More To Tell had so, so many layers and secrets — by the end I was just bursting from all the reveals. Like there were a couple of things I had a hunch about, but it’s impossible to guess all the twists. 😂 Love that for us.
You Will Find…
- small town mystery
- Brynn is a real Nancy Drew while Tripp is all moody, tortured and handsome
- huge cast of diverse and well fleshed-out characters
- cracking open a cold case and suddenly sir it is a hot case now
- you can suspect everyone tbh
- secrets leading to more secrets, it is the most tangled web of secrets you ever did see
- really features the dangers of assumptions, and how deep a mess everyone made with all the conclusions they leapt to
It delivers a very contemporary vibe too, and honestly I love that about it. With thrillers, I often find characterisation takes a backseat while the plot is the focus, but this one does both. Plus the cast is huge, and that actually helps it to feel more real. Although I’m bad with names and there were a lot of people to track. 😂 But Brynn and Tripp were both equally interesting narrators, and I was easily invested in their personal lives and their reasons for cracking open this case. (Or in Tripp’s case, traumatically reliving all his bad decisions for a good cause.)
Brynn is working as an intern for a true crime TV show and asks them to look into the cold case of her murdered 8th Grade teacher, Mr. Larkin. Nothing ever felt right about that crime. Too many random aspects and unanswered questions. And Brynn always loved Mr. Larkin as a teacher so she wants justice. But one of the people who found Mr. Larkin’s body, back all those years ago, was Tripp…and he absolutely lied on that day and Brynn needs to know why.
Brynn is very go-getter and driven, and just the type of girl to hound the clues and not drop it even when it starts to get super dangerous. While Tripp is absolutely a tortured mess, and right up front you know he’s hiding stuff, but what. They had a thing when they were in middle-school before a catastrophic falling out, so there’s a bit of a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers aspect with the romance which pulled off nicely and didn’t take away from the weight of the mystery.
There were SO many moving parts to this story too. As a writer, I was kind of in awe of all the tracks and trails there were to weave together by the end. And it did come together very satisfyingly. But seriously it was like secrets underneath secrets…and more than once I was just like: BUT WHO DID WHAT AND WHY. And then answers came together masterfully with more than one surprise at the end. And so many characters had pivotal parts to play and reveals to make. I also love how very dependent on the characters’ personalities the mystery is — like “so-and-so being that kind of person leading to them doing this“. I’m nerding out over the writer aspect, but just really admired it!
A mystery with a bit of angst and murder as two teens cut open the old wound of the past and find nothing is as it seems. Everyone is lying. Everyone has a secret. Totally addictive!
Also as I’m a total McManus fan apparently 😂 you can catch my reviews for One Of Us Is Next, The Cousins, Two Can Keep A Secret, and You’ll Be The Death Of Me.
Thanks to Penguin Australia for the review copy!
Title: Nothing More To Tell
Author: Karen M. McManus
Date Published: 30 August 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Aus
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks
Add it on Goodreads
Someone got away with murder. The most terrifying part is that they’re back – or maybe they never left. . .
Five years ago, Brynn quit Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favourite teacher. The case was never solved, but Brynn’s sure that the three kids who found Mr. Larkin’s body on school grounds know more than they’re telling.
Brynn’s ex-best friend Tripp was one of them. Thanks to Tripp’s testimony none of them were found guilty of the murder and now, five years later, the trio are at the top of the school’s social ladder.
When Brynn gets the internship of a lifetime working on a new true-crime show, she decides to investigate what really happened that day in the woods for herself. But the further she dives into the past, the more secrets she uncovers-about Saint Ambrose School, about Mr. Larkin, and even about her ex-best friend.
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