Little Pretty Things
By: Lori Rader-Day
Rating: 5 of 5
“Little Pretty Things” is a murder mystery and much more. The story revolves around two runners, Maddy and Juliet, who were track stars on their high school team ten years before. Maddy, who was always first and the superstar, moved away from their little town and seemed to have gotten things together in a big way. Juliet, always second to Maddy, ended up leaving college when her father passed away and is stuck in the town and in a job that she can’t stand with a mother who can’t get beyond her husband’s death.
Maddy comes back to town after ten years and tries to befriend Juliet. Juliet lets all the jealousy of all the years of second place crash into her and rebuffs her old friend. After all, Maddy has it all together and is sporting a huge engagement ring on her hand and Juliet cleans rooms at the Mid-Night Inn (a place where only bargain hunters and those who want to hide their doings will stay.) Juliet wants to apologize the next day, but as it turns out, that is too late. During the night, someone has murdered Maddy.
The story then moves to Juliet trying to solve Maddy’s murder. She feels that the police think she is a suspect, and for various reasons, she can understand why they are looking more closely at her. Along the way, she finds out more about her old friend and that maybe her life during the last ten years has not been as grandiose as it had seemed.
The author weaves a lot of serious issues throughout this murder mystery: teenage sex, mental illness, and kleptomania amongst others that I won’t mention as that might be a bit of a plot spoiler. I thought I had solved the mystery part way through but it turned out that while I had the whodunnit right, I was completely wrong on the whydunnit. The clues are there, I just connected the dots wrong.
The characters are all flawed. There isn’t one that doesn’t have some sort of issue that might make you re-consider being their friend. I find that stories with flawed characters are the best ones for me – I can relate as I am also a flawed human (as are all of us.) I may not have the same flaws but I can understand the impulse that can push the character to do something or say something or behave in a way that is outside the norm.
The book is an interesting mix of adult issues and characters as well as high school issues and problems (both present and from ten years before.) For me, the mix was extremely interesting as I like to read mysteries as well as some young adult books. I got a two for one with this story. The end made sense and brought good closure though we aren’t given a happy every after ending with all the dotted i’s and crossed t’s.
I recommend the book for anyone who enjoys a good character mystery that involves both adults and teenagers.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher.
“Little Pretty Things” is a murder mystery and much more. The story revolves around two runners, Maddy and Juliet, who were track stars on their high school team ten years before. Maddy, who was always first and the superstar, moved away from their little town and seemed to have gotten things together in a big way. Juliet, always second to Maddy, ended up leaving college when her father passed away and is stuck in the town and in a job that she can’t stand with a mother who can’t get beyond her husband’s death.