[Review] The Sorority Murder - Allison Brennan

Summary: Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party one night and never came back. Her body was found after two weeks, but the case has grown cold. Three years later while interning at the medical examiner's, Lucas discovers new information, but the police are not interested.

Lucas knows he has several credible pieces of the puzzle. He just isn't sure how they fit together. So he creates a podcast to revisit Candace's last hours. Then he encourages listeners to crowdsource what they remember and invites guest lecturer Regan Merritt, a former US marshal, to come on and share her expertise.

New tips come in that convince Lucas and Regan they are onto something. Then shockingly one of the podcast callers turns up dead. Another hints at Candace's secret life, a much darker picture than Lucas imagined—and one that implicates other sorority sisters. Regan uses her own resources to bolster their theory and learns that Lucas is hiding his own secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his real motives in pursuing this podcast—before the killer silences him forever.  (Pub Date: Dec 28 2021)

 

This is a good thriller but it is also a little predictable. 

Regan has just quit being a US marshal following the death of her son when she's introduced to Lucas, a graduating student who's started a podcast. He needs her help organizing the investigation of the death of another student years before, and she might just agree to it, even though she feels there's more in his motivation than mere curiosity or wanting to use the project as his capstone. 

3+.

When I look back at the story there was a good number of plot twists and they were indeed interesting. I like the plot as a whole. The problem was the execution, and one of the reasons may sound weird: I think this writer was too organized. Because of how perfectly laid out the story was, it became easy to guess the culprit, the reason, and a lot more. It also made both Regan and Lucas not very easy to like, because I was seeing through the process, which caused me not to see them as characters anymore but tools to the writer. I don't think I'm a smart reader, so I'm sure this story is predictable. 

That aside, I could still enjoy it. I really wish I had been surprised, fooled and all, it's supposed to be a mystery, but the story itself, the death of the student, everything that came before it and that happens while Lucas and Regan go on with the podcast, I think it was also worth reading. Unfortunately, it all just lacked the punch it could have. I can't compare to other books by Allison Brennan, being my first by her, but I would read more from her.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.