e-Audio, 11:12:16
Narrated by: Elena Rey
Release Date: July 29, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Read from: July 9-10, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received a free e-ALC from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Death, Violence, Fire/Arson, Gambling, Poisoning
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Cozy Mystery, Knitting, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Latinx), Realistic Fiction, YAA murder mystery game turns deadly in this YA whodunit by the author of Suddenly a Murder.
“Dark academia meets classic detective fiction in this clever, twisty page-turner.” —Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying.
Everyone in town knows about the game. For decades, J. Everett High has staged an annual murder mystery to put its criminology students to the test. And this year, crime junkie Dulce Castillo is dead set on winning. When the game kicks off, the student playing the victim, Xavier Torres, is found poisoned in the school’s greenhouse . . . except his death is not pretend.
It’s murder.
When the authorities open an investigation, all the evidence points to Sierra Fox, Xavier’s ex-girlfriend and Dulce’s ex-best friend. Claiming innocence and desperate to clear her name, Sierra begs Dulce to look past their bad blood and find the culprit.
After all, Dulce knows this school better than any investigator ever could, but she must use caution to solve this mystery. Because these historic halls are full of suspects with no shortage of motives. And in this game of cat and mouse, the other player kills.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was so weird, but it was also so good. It was like a cozy mystery in YA. I mean it had the yarn and everything. But the way everything was done was just outlandish. But it was also cool because their school okayed everything? Idk that was the weirdest school I’ve read about in a long time lol
OK so what I meant by the weirdest is just a small thing. They basically had a huge school wide project (I think it was for one grade and open to those that wanted to do it) that basically was a whodunit party. I know what it was like because I had done one before with my library system. But the thing is, what kind of school does this? Lol I wish I knew because I wanted to go to something like this lol But the fake mystery and the real one kept mixing together, so you’ll have to pay attention or you’ll miss some weird important detail. And if you do, you’ll never guess who did what.
Other than the double mystery being cool, it was just an overall entertaining read. The way the killer and method is revealed, let me just say you will not see it coming. I very much felt like it was a reveal in a clue game. The method had me sitting like what?! I still don’t know if that’s actually possible. Because ain’t no way lmao Definitely learned something new the day I finished this one. Which of course led to what I didn’t care for about it. It was so outlandish I didn’t think some of that could have happened. Life just doesn’t happen that good. For anyone lol I just didn’t buy it. Which is why no one could put it together. But even still, It was so hard to put this one down. I had to know who did what, but also, why this was happening, and just how many corrupt people there were in this book.
Like I said in my immediate review on Netgalley, this is a weird ass book, a weird ass school, and if you skip it, it’ll be a weird ass choice. Muñoz is quickly becoming one of my favorites And so is Elena Rey, who narrated the hell out of this book lol I really enjoyed just about every part of this book.
Overall, I give this
