So many twists and turns and "gasp" moments!
You could never call this one serious literature, but I had fun with it.

Love the idea of grown-up teen detectives, ala Nancy Drew. It's a neat genre to explore, and I wish there was more of it out there.

Some of the twists in this one were just so out there and eyebrow raising, but I think you need to take the book for what it is - a campy, OTT ride.

We Had a Hunch has been called Nancy Drew meets Yellowjackets and it is no exaggeration. Tom Ryan’s novel is a layered mystery that taps into our nostalgia for teenage detectives (Harriet? Encyclopedia Brown?).

Set 25 years after the media circus that made the “Teen Detectives of Edgar Mills” household names, this novel cleverly revisits the adult sleuths as they navigate life after fame, When a new murder that resembles the work of the serial killer they helped catch decades earlier, the group is forced into a reckoning.

Alice Van Dyne is still living in their hometown, haunted by the loss of her father and boyfriend. Her twin, Samantha, now a washed-up reality TV personality in LA, and Joey O'Day, a reclusive tech star with secrets of his own, are both pulled back into into town when the criminal—The Janitor—demands their presence in jail.

Ryan weaves the present and past, letting the story unfold like a true-crime documentary. The pacing is tight, the emotional stakes high, and the echoes of 2000s pop culture fame provide a backdrop for a story that’s ultimately about what it costs to carry the truth.

#groveatlantic #wehadahunch #tomryan