I found this to be a very interesting and suspenseful book. Everyone involved seem to be a little bit suspect to me. It was such an interesting premise, and kept me involved from start to finish. If I’m going to read a mystery thriller, I need to be captivated, from the beginning to the end of the book. In this case, I thoroughly enjoyed both the story, and a very interesting if not always relatable characters.

Fifteen years ago, five friends, Vanessa, Emily, Brittany, Paige, and Lydia, spent a weekend at Brittany’s family’s winery on the Oregon coast. After a wine infused evening, Vanessa disappeared. Emily always wondered if she had something to do with that disappearance. When she thinks she sees Vanessa at a local coffee shop, she calls together the other three women for a weekend reunion at the winery to try to figure out just what happened. Oh, and since she is a writer for television, she is also working on a screenplay about the incident.

If I had not made a commitment to never have a DNF, this may well have been one for me. I always like to give a book a chance and sometimes am pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, this just didn’t capture my interest and I frequently found myself skimming. Weaving a script for a screenplay into the story is a clever device, but, somehow, it just didn’t work. It also made it difficult to distinguish between what really happened and what Emily was making up. It took about half the book for secrets to begin to be revealed. All of the women were quite unpleasant characters. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend a weekend with any of them and it was difficult to believe that they were supposed to be such good friends at one time.

There will be an audience for this book; I just wasn’t it.

Strange story about strange people. Switching back between 15 years ago when one of a group of women went missing and presumed dead at sea, and the present when the remaining women reunite at the same house by the sea.

fast paced thriller that i couldn't put down

thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the copy for review

What an interesting premise....a college student disappears and is presumed dead. Her friends say they know nothing. Now, 15 years later, they get together again at the scene. No spoilers here, but somewhat predictable after getting into it.

One of the characters writes for a TV show. I love the inclusion of scenes written like a movie. That was a fun addition.

Scenes of the Crime is closed door mystery about the disappearance of college student Vanessa 15 years ago. While on a trip to her family's winery with her cousin and three other friends Vanessa vanishes. The girls decide to go back to the winery together to try and get some kind of closure though one of them has an ulterior motive. Emily is writing a screenplay about what happened and wants to solve the mystery of their missing friend. I wanted to really like this book but to be honest was just ok for me. The story had an interesting premise but at times was hard to keep straight what was going on and if what we were being told was reliable. There are scenes from the screenplay at the end of the chapters and that didn't totally work for me. I was surprised by the twist at the end so that helped my rating. Would recommend this book 3 star. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Scenes of the Crime drew me in with the dark premise of a girl gone missing without a trace. What happened to Vanessa? After disappearing one night and an extensive search, Vanessa is presumed dead. Years later, writer Emily and her crew of friends from college reunite at the winery where Vanessa was last seen alive. But all of the women hold secrets about Vanessa and their last moments with her. When ominous things start happening, will Emily be able to discover what truly happened to Vanessa?

Scenes of the Crime was an interesting thriller that had a kaleidoscope of a mystery at its heart. The format of using a script felt like a good choice, though at times it was hard to tell what was fact and what was the script angle (as intended, I’m sure!). My favorite character was Emily; I liked learning about her job and what she remembers about her time with Vanessa. All of the women are morally gray and contain layers of secrets. Brittany was villainous in a fun way, while Paige and Lydia revealed their true natures over time. None of them felt particularly likable to me, but this worked in creating an atmosphere where no character is fully trustworthy (not even Emily). The setting was creepy and isolating, adding to a sense of urgency when clues about Vanessa start showing up. Overall I liked the resolution, though at first it took some time to process. Scenes of the Crime is a bingeable and enjoyable mystery featuring a missing girl, an isolated location, and morally gray characters.

Thank you to Jilly Gagnon, Bantam, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure – I was provided a copy of this book by the author; however, I have voluntarily chosen to write a review. All opinions are my own.

Scenes of the Crime is scheduled for a September 5, 2023 release

Where’s Vanessa?

Five Friends take a trip to a remote winery in Oregon. It should have been the perfect chance to relax and wind down after a long semester of studies and exams. But when Vanessa Morales vanishes without a trace the remaining girls’ lives are turned upside down. Now, fifteen years later Paige Fischer is a writer in a long running sitcom. Tired of penning the same old formulaic, clichéd content she feels that if she can only complete that breakthrough script that she can finally break out of obscurity and into success. When she spies a dead ringer for her missing friend Vanessa, her writer’s brain kicks in. What exactly happened to Vanessa? She was the last person to possibly have seen her alive, but only a few cryptic text messages left behind. Could she tell Vanessa’s story (albeit with a little literary license) and bring closure to herself and her friends? With the once close-knit group of friends not even speaking after the events of that day would it even be possible to bring the group together to share their experiences? After pulling some strings with Vanessa’s cousin Brittany, the remaining women agree to meet for a weekend at the winery; if for no other reason than to reminisce and obtain closure. However, as the weekend wears on and increasingly more strange events occur it does not appear that closure is anywhere in sight. Everyone in the group has a different story of that night and everyone has their secrets. When the truth is revealed, it will affect all parties involved irrevocably.

Scenes Of The Crime is the upcoming novel by author Jilly Gagnon. Taking the premise of “escape room” to a new level Gagnon has crafted a tale that will keep the reader guessing. As the surviving friends return to the winery the atmosphere is tense but seems to loosen up once the wine begins to flow. As each person reveals their secrets about Vanessa it becomes clear that if foul play was involved, each of the friends had a reason to want her out of the picture if not dead. With the bulk of the story taking place over a weekend, the action was fairly fast paced and mostly centered around the winery. Gagnon’s description of remote cliff top locale with all it’s secret passages and prohibition era caves was very east to imagine. This was a story that sucked me in and had me binging into the wee hours, and while the was my first time reading this author it will not be my last.

If you like mysteries with grandiose setting and characters that are relatable in their unlikableness, Scenes of The Crime will be the perfect binge read for you.

This was a DNF for me. I tried, but it was just boring and the characters were so unlikeable. They were supposedly best friends in college on a girls trip to a winery when Vanessa disappeared. 15 years later they traveled back to said winery in an attempt at “closure.” For people who were supposed to be such good friends, they don’t seem to like each other even a little. It felt like really bad reality tv, and I just had no desire to finish this book.

Emily Fischer is an up and coming screenwriter stuck in a dead-end, un-inspiring sit-com writing gig. While looking for inspiration one day in a local cafe, Emily spots a doppelgänger of her long missing friend, Venessa Morales. Last seen over 15 years ago at a friend’s family winery in coastal Oregon. Fueled by flashbacks of their last encounter, Emily decides this is the inspiration she needs for her next screenplay, Emily gathers her old colleague friends for a reunion at the same winery looking to uncover what truly happed on that ill-fated night many years ago.

Gagnon’s locked door mystery, “Scenes of the Crime”, is great for readers who like a quick paced novel with a beautiful setting. The book picks up steam fast with the first major twist happening around 60% of the way through. Unfortunately, Gagnon runs out the steam and not much else noteworthy happens after that. 3/5 stars for a quick read in a great setting.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book and the early opportunity to read It!

Scenes of the crime is an okay, locked room type thriller. Gives messy reality tv of some spoiled, unlikable rich people. The characters aren’t really likable or well developed. I like when novels are told in different ways so Emily’s screenplay and different perspectives i enjoyed. Overall, wasn’t bad, but not a stand out novel.

I have a hard time with books when I cannot find a single character to pull for which unfortunately was the case with Scenes of the Crime. I don't watch reality tv drama and this was it in book form. The book was a little hard to follow, feeling a bit messy at points. I can see others enjoying but this just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

Emily and her best friends are on a college get away at a winery. A winery that's owned by her best friend Vanessa's family. Vanessa then goes missing, but wait! Emily has a series of text messages on her phone that make it look like she did something shady to Vanessa. Too bad she was too drunk to remember anything, so she says nothing to the cops.

15 years later she sees a doppelganger of Vanessa in an LA coffeeshop and decides to bring the whole group back together at the winery to see if she can figure out what happened to Vanessa. Oh, and she's writing a screenplay about that weekend so she can also cash in on the mystery.

The book is told between scenes from Emily's screenplay and Emily's present trip to the winery with Brittany, Paige, and Lydia. It honestly seems like none of these women like each other or have a personality outside of drinking. Everyone's back story seems so minimalized that it's hard to care about any of the characters or understand why they were friends in the first place. We're supposed to believe Vanessa was the glue of the group, but honestly she just seems like an asshole.

I didn't really like this book and the twists honestly made me angry. The author seems like she's trying to say something about toxic friendships, but there is no positive relationships to anchor the book. It's just bad rich people doing shitty things to other people. There were too many misdirects for me to enjoy the book and the ending really fell flat for me. I honestly put this book down and was like what did I just read....and not in a good way.

Emily, a screenwriter from the Midwest, still struggles with the disappearance of her college friend, Vanessa, fifteen years ago. In an effort to learn what truly happened to Vanessa and to help her make the events of that night into a screen play, Emily asks the other three women with her at the winery when Vanessa disappeared to reconnect for a vacation at the same winery. This is when the plot begins to thicken…

I really enjoyed Scenes of the Crime, but I did feel the writing was a bit confusing at times. As Emily, the main character, was a screenwriter, I understand why the author uses the screenplay she is writing to tell how Vanessa’s story unfolds sporadically throughout the book. However, I did not like reading the story in this format. Sometimes I struggled to know what actually happened and what was exaggerated for the screen play.

Gagnon did hold my interest, and I was drawn to read how the story progresses until the very end.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.

On a girls trip years ago, one of the friend group, Vanessa went missing, never to be seen again. Emily is an ambitious screenwriter who has never felt right about what happened to Vanessa. At a coffee shop she spots a woman that looks just like Vanessa, pushing her to investigate in the form of rewriting her and her friend's story in the form of a script.

The premise is interesting the but the execution fell flat. The story is actually partly told in script form which I really was not a fan off. I never really got into the story at all. The characters never really felt fully fleshed out.

2.5 stars, rounded up

Thank you netgalley and Random House Publishing group Ballatine for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yikes. I get what the author was trying to do here, but it did not work for me at all. I usually love locked room mysteries and was very intrigued by a winery setting but between the dual timelines and the interspersed movie scripts the whole thing needed a lot more editing to be considered cohesive. I also understand the whole point of the book was about toxic friendships but all of these women were truly the worst --- not like an "ooh this is some good reality TV show drama" way but in a "I cannot tolerate another singular minute of any of these characters" way.

Wish I had more positive things to say about this one but it wasn't for me.

I received a copy of Scenes of the Crime via NetGalley to read and review.

To be completely honest I struggled to finish Scenes of the Crime. The story at it’s bones reminds me of Pretty Little Liars. A group of friends go on spring break to winery owned by two of the girls’ grandparents. On this trip the girls seem to have a lot of issues and at the end Vanessa goes missing.

The very beginning where Emily runs into Vanessa in town and Vanessa pulls the “you never saw me here” to texting Emily that she can no longer keep her secret and to meet on a beach hours later was too big of a swing in character change. This is explained towards the end but it already set a bad tone for me.

To make matters worse, Emily is the ringleader to bring everyone back to the winery 15 years later- not because she wants to solve how Vanessa went missing but because she wants the details sorted to use in her screenwriting. We get these cut scenes throughout and it takes way too long to have it confirmed that Emily switches up details to suit the story for TV. THAT frustrated me so much in the beginning. I couldn’t tell if the cut scenes were truly from one of the group’s point of view or Emily acting like it was their point of view for the screen. This caused me to almost put the book down multiple times. The only reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know what happened to Vanessa.

The ending left me absolutely frustrated. Not because it was bad but because small details were constantly being switched. One minute someone was holding a gun then the next a knife. I didn’t think this was a cut scene or Emily trying to decide what fit better but apparently that’s exactly what was happening. Even then it wasn’t super clear. I was having to reread so much throughout this book because I was convinced I misread something and who knows maybe I did but with the cut scenes being so similar to what was happening in the story (usually people change names when they write something like this so that would have really helped distinguish between Emily’s reality to what is playing out in her head) it made it really hard to follow what was really happening to the characters vs what Emily was dreaming up.

The story was interesting but this book went slow for me. The back and forth of the timelines was confusing and caused the flow of the book to stagnate. If you can hang in there, the author does pull it together in the last half of the book and ends with a good finale.

The premise of this novel sounded really interesting but I wasn't impressed with the execution. I almost DNF'ed it because for the first 1/3 I was bored and couldn't get myself invested in the novel. Ended up pushing through, but still was never impressed with the outcome. I guessed the major twist, but there was some smaller ones along the way that I didn't see coming. None of the characters are likeable, and none of them redeem themselves.

2.5 stars from me.

Well darn, I wanted to loved this. But it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I am a huge thriller fan and this one was just okay for me. I struggled to get through the book and keep attention. Not terrible but not excellent, somewhere in the middle. I will say I feel like a lot of other may enjoy this more than me. I might just be the oddity of readers. The premise does sound very interesting. I think it just needed better pacing!

I will say what I did enjoy:
- the creepy and eerie setting
- the last third picked up and made it more interesting for me
- the ending was great! This may be what saved the book to be in the okay range

Overall, this was a slower paced thriller. There were elements I enjoyed. But there were other elements I didn’t like (the characters, pacing issues). I think it is best to go into this read blindly. 3 stars out of 5. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!