Jen is 17 and her mom left without a trace when she was just a toddler. Over the years, Jen's mom sent notes and presents, but otherwise, nobody in the family has heard from her. Jen's come to accept the fact that her mom is gone, so when her Grandma Kay announces her theory that Jen's mother died all those years ago, Jen is shaken and begins questioning everything. This mystery set against the backdrop of an annual murder mystery party at Kay's B&B. This year's mystery was written to mirror the disappearance of Jen's mom in the hopes of scaring up a few clues to the cold case.
This could be an interesting book IF (and it's a BIG if) it had better writing. Nitz supplies a lot of details, but they're the wrong ones. She tells us what highways Jen takes on her drive to the B&B, but gives us little to no information on the suspects. This story is set in Augusta, Missouri, with jaunts into St. Louis. It's painfully obvious that Nitz does not live, nor has ever lived, in this area. It seems like, in her quest at authenticity, she's simply Googled St. Louis and name-dropped some of what she found (Six Flags, the aforementioned highways, etc.). For example, if your dad works at SLU (which is only vaguely implied), are you going to call it St. Louis University in casual conversation with your grandma? Probably not. If she was truly striving for authenticity, we'd know what high school Jen attended (even if it was a fictional one) but the reader still has no clue by the time the book is over. Maybe this wouldn't be so annoying to someone who doesn't live here, but it just reeks of fakery to me.
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