The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan
Release Date: 28th December 2021
Genre: Thriller
Target Audience: Adult
Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party one night and never came back. Her body was found after two weeks, but the case has grown cold. Three years later while interning at the medical examiner’s, Lucas discovers new information, but the police are not interested. Lucas knows he has several credible pieces of the puzzle. He just isn’t sure how they fit together. So he creates a podcast to revisit Candace’s last hours. Then he encourages listeners to crowdsource what they remember and invites guest lecturer Regan Merritt, a former US marshal, to come on and share her expertise. New tips come in that convince Lucas and Regan they are onto something. Then shockingly one of the podcast callers turns up dead. Another hints at Candace’s secret life, a much darker picture than Lucas imagined–and one that implicates other sorority sisters. Regan uses her own resources to bolster their theory and learns that Lucas is hiding his own secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his real motives in pursuing this podcast–before the killer silences him forever.
I think a lot of readers will have some issues with The Sorority Murder, particularly with the large amount of dialogue, but I actually very much enjoyed it. In terms of the plot, it was certainly intriguing. I love any story to do with podcasts or streaming, and this aspect always adds another element to a thriller plot.
I think the writing style was the biggest let down of the book, in that it was dialogue heavy. Everything was discussed between characters and there was little room for description or much prose at all. I didn’t actually mind this, as I found it worked well with the podcast element, but I know that some readers will be put off. I don’t particularly like my thriller books to include too much description anyway, although admittedly a little more wouldn’t have hurt.
I really enjoyed following the mystery along with the characters and trying to figure out what had gone on at this university. It was a lot of fun, and by the end the reveals felt very satisfying.
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