Natalie Temple is a true crime junkie. She even has a podcast; who cares if only three people listen to it. She just graduated high school and is spending the summer working on her mom’s diner before she goes off to journalism school. It’s at the diner that she first hears that her favorite teacher was murdered. Now Natalie has a true crime story that hits close to home, and she’s going to be the one to get to the bottom of it. Is she too close to the case though? Will her love for her teacher get her too close to the killer?
Ehrlich created an intricate story line with twists and turns that any mystery reader will love. However, the character development was a bit lacking. It was hard to care about the story when I didn’t care about the characters. Natalie was the only fully developed character, and she was a bit annoying. Her journalistic tactics were extremely unethical, and when another reporter made similar decisions, Natalie hypocritically judged them. The storytelling across multiple timelines was intriguing though. Every few chapters went back in time to when Natalie’s mother was in college, but even with the flashbacks, her motivations were unclear as well. Ultimately the story was good, but I felt that the execution was lacking.