Book Review: You Will Be Mine

Book Review: You Will Be Mine by Natasha Preston
Publication date: February 6, 2018
Read courtesy of netgalley.com

The author did a really good job of throwing the reader off the trail of the real killer in You Will Be Mine. I normally don't pick up mysteries or murder mysteries to read, but I liked trying to guess this who-dunnit. However, the other possible victims hung around too long for me to read the rest of the story as any more than a Scooby Doo mystery ... a little too unbelievable to be true. Leaving the potential victims in the thick of the story doesn't make the story scary and suspenseful for me; it makes it a "how dumb are these people, and how can I believe this story?"story.

The fact that this British tale is sold in the U.S. won't detract from the story. I saw one reviewer who thought that some of the references or allusions were too vague for an American audience. I disagree; the author's contexts were enough to guide the reader through the minor cultural differences.

I was bothered, though, by the bungling, inept law enforcement depicted throughout the story even to the end. A plot of the-police-can't-solve-a-crime-but-young-adults-can perpetuated the Scooby-like mood. In spite of the author's ability to get me to speculate about the wrong killer, moving the action forward by way of an entirely flawed police force was wholly dissatisfying.