When Emily gets her friends together after 15 years for a weekend at the winery where her friend Vanessa died, she gets way more than she bargained for. Lydia, Brittany, and Paige are all wary of each other and not wanting to play nice, even after all this time. When items start showing up that only Vanessa knows about, the women are really on edge. It doesn’t help that they are in a very remote location, on the ocean, with caves and cliffs surrounding the winery. Through a series of events and some twists and turns, they finally get to the bottom of what happened to Vanessa all those years ago. Although none of the characters are too likable in this book, it made each character seem guilty and helped the story not be too predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I had a hard time really getting into the story- usually suspense/thriller like this catches me pretty early on, but I just couldn't find a character I could like or relate to. I did push through to finish the book, 2.25 stars for me. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

DNF @ 10%

After reading some mediocre reviews I made the decision to set this one aside. If a thriller does not pull me in right away I am working on getting better at DNFing it so I do not get into a slump.

Ooo this one definitely threw me for a loop. I felt that I thought I knew what was going to happen but then completely did not. The ending was great and I am a big fan of the writing and how Jilly Gagnon brought this storyline to life.

Scenes of the Crime by Jilly Gagnon reminded me quite a bit of similar books, such as One of the Girls and The Wild Girls, but that doesn't keep me from having enjoyed all of these books. We are made aware pretty quickly that Emily, our MC, is an unreliable narrator as she narrates the ersatz reunion weekend at a winery that is the "scene of the crime" while also writing a screenplay that she hopes to revive her career.
I liked this book a good bit more than "All Dressed Up". The author does seem to be improving but it's still pretty typical thriller formula with under-developed supporting characters, which was one of my biggest problems with Gagnon's previous offering.
Four stars because I liked the setting, the embedded screenplay, and the ending. Suggested for fans of Ruth Ware, Gillian Flynn, and the other usual suspects.

Scenes of the crime by Jilly Gagnon, is about friends reuniting to figure out how one of them died years before. The way it was written alternated between normal chapters and then the script of a screenplay. It was a little hard to follow at times. Overall, the story was good, but the pacing was off and the writing style was a little difficult for me. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Scenes of the Crime is written by Jilly Gagnon. This is the first book by this author that I have read. This book is written as a split between real life and one of the characters' intended screenplay. I found it a little hard to follow. The setting is a winery in Oregon and friends reunited 15 years after a traumatic event. The 5 friends, who are a bit toxic, and you will like some over the other. During this reunion can they get to the bottom of it? Which one of the friends knows the actual truth.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book - all thoughts are my own.

I actually started this one back in August and tried multiple times to come back to it after long breaks. I was purposefully trying to reset and to see if maybe I was just in the wrong headspace at the time. Apparently not. It wasn't for me. The two biggest reasons I abandoned ship were the redundancy--all show no tell with a lot of plodding along--and the unlikable characters. I don't give any thought or time to women like this in my own life, so it's hard to do so for fictional characters. Between the pacing and characters it made no sense for me to continue. I appreciate the opportunity to read it but unfortunately it wasn't a good fit for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an advanced reader copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

I loved the cover of this book but thats about it.

I found this book hard to follow including the characters. Also the plot was a little far fetched.

I sadly give this one a good rating.

Dang. I had high hopes for this book after reading (and enjoying) some of the author's previous novels but this one was just, simply put, messy. It was hard to follow, the characters were confusing and lacked development, and the plot was entirely unbelievable.

The plot sounds like it has potential - love the setting of the winery and the idea of a girls trip gone awry but it was so poorly executed that there was no making up for it. I can't even remember the characters' names and I finished this not too long ago. The friend coming back from the dead was the nail in the coffin for me, no pun intended. Can't recommend this one on a good conscience.

I struggled to get into this book. In some parts I was sucked in and the book went fast. In others, I just could not get the story to finish fast enough. I think the premise is excellent. The ending missed the mark. And the characters just didn't keep me engaged.

This was a great read! It had an interesting plot and was very much filled with suspense and thrill! I thought the plot was interesting and it was kinda unique as to how it was written. I read a lot and I really think this is one of my favorites of the year so far!

This book started really strong, however it ended up not being for me.

The 5 friends felt a little too two dimensional and clichéd, I found that I stopped caring about who did it, how they did it, and if anyone else was going to die.

I did like the setting, though and would have liked it had the characters been a bit more easy to connect to or felt more fleshed out.

Emily is a struggling screenwriter who is stuck in her day job. She needs to make a change, and soon. When she gets together with long-lost friends to remember that fateful spring break when one of the 5 went missing and presumed dead, what better setting to hash out her new screenplay? Twists and turns leave the girls at each other, trying to find out what happened on that fateful night. This book had the storyline to be good, but it just fell flat for me with the structure. With the flashes of the screenplay interspersed with the story, it became a bit confusing, and I found myself a bit frustrated instead of just enjoying the story. I did finish, and for that, it gets 3 stars. It's not one of my favorites, and just okay. Thank you, NetGalley, for the eARC.

In SCENES OF THE CRIME, a screenwriter uses the story of a girls trip gone wrong as inspiration for a new script.

It’s hard for a locked room mystery to stand out when there are so many out there. The narrative style of this book focusing on a screenwriter takes it from the average girls’ weekend gone awry to something unique.

Emily was one of a group of five friends who went to a winery in Oregon during college to relax after exams. But when queen bee Vanessa goes missing without a trace on the getaway, the friends’ lives are changed forever.

15 years later Emily has gone on to become a screenwriter on a sitcom, which she finds dull and formulaic. She dreams of writing her own script someday. While at a café, she sees someone who looks exactly like Vanessa. Emily was the last one to see Vanessa alive—a secret she has kept since. Now, she may have inspiration to write a screenplay based on Vanessa, if only she can find out what really happened to her?

Emily convinces the group to get back together one more time at the very same winery where Vanessa disappeared. When the four reconvene, it soon becomes clear that one of them knows more than they’ve said. Strange events begin to occur, and clues to long-buried secrets appear in their rooms. Everyone has their own story of the night Vanessa disappeared, and none of them are keen to share it. Tension builds until the truth is finally revealed, and it’s clear none of them are going to be the same again.

I liked that Emily was using the story as inspiration to write a screenplay. The scenes from the present and past are interspersed with script pages, and it was hard to tell when Emily was taking artistic liberty with the portrayal of events. I loved the structure to the book!

At times certain parts dragged on, but the last 25% moved fast. These women all held secrets from one another, and there were a lot to reveal. Vanessa is an absent figure looming over the story. All four women were obsessed with her friendship and none have moved on 15 years later.

A unique take on a locked room mystery and a fun ending, this is a book that is an easy binge read for the psychological thriller lover.

tl;dr
High drama, bad blood, and toxic relationships are the building blocks of this twisty mystery. Takes a few chapters to pick up momentum.

Thoughts
There are no heroes in this story. It's not a book where you find someone to cheer for. Rather, it's the kind of book you read when you want to see how much trouble terrible people can get themselves into when they're stuck with each other, and it nails down that mood perfectly. Messy women, toxic friendships, and high drama rule the day, as our less-than-noble MC brings all her friends(?) together ostensibly to bring closure to trauma, but secretly to mine them for plot points on a script she's stalled out on. Everyone has secrets. Everyone's lying, most of all our POV narrator who - like all good writers - knows to never let the truth get in the way of a good story. What does get in the way, unfortunately, is the pacing. The setup takes time, and there were several moments where the plot felt like it meandered in the beginning. The second half of the book moves decidedly faster, bolstered by some clever writing and lots of cut-ins to the MC's "WIP script," of the events she's currently experiencing. It's a neat way to move things forward, as well as keep the reader guessing, and I liked all the reveals they included (or didn't!). Read it for the drama and allll the wine.

I was very excited to read this book, due to the blurb, and all the other promotions going on with it. After I started reading it, I realized that the story went in lots of different places, but didn’t really connect well. It seemed very disorganized, and there were parts of the story that just didn’t connect well to the main plot. I had a hard time concentrating on the main story because all the side characters made it near impossible to focus on the plot, which seem to go in many different directions, but didn’t really connect well at the end. This premise was really thought out but the final product didn’t connect in the story didn’t make a lot of sense.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish the novel so I won't be leaving a full review.

This one has such a clever premise: a crime and a screen writer writing her script based upon the crime as it unfolds for the reader. the premise is fresh, but sadly this one felt like it had potential to be great but was just OK. A twisty read.

This one is for you if you like slow burn, friends with issues and a unique premise.