Killing Rachel by Anne Cassidy {Book Review}

I originally liked the book for the cover; it created this eery presence with the bridge, water and the mist.

Then ‘The Murder Notebooks’ saying caught my eye and I thought, this might be a good idea.

Now that I’ve read the book, I know that this isn’t the first book in the series by Anne Cassidy. If you can, do read the first book first and then this one. There are many references to the previous book which left me with information gaps for perspective.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book Review: Killing Rachel by Anne Cassidy #mysterybooks #youngadultbooks #booktwt
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Plot:

Rose and Joshua still have no answers about the disappearance of their parents. The police have no further leads ad the case stands still. The belief is that they are dead, but their children still hold on to the hope.

Joshua believes the answers lie in the cryptic notebooks that they have discovered and tries to work on the code to find any clues.

Rose receives the news about the death of her old school friend, Rachel, and is overcome with guilt when she admits that she had been ignoring Rachel’s calls and messages days before her death.

There could be a connection between her death and the disappearance of their parents, but how could there be a link?

Thoughts:

The book is an easy read, but had a slightly slow pace in the beginning, and you need to sort of get over the little hill of boring before the ‘action‘ starts up.

The plot of the book revolves around the murder of Rachel (kind of already obvious) but the sub-plot, the one about the Murder Notebooks, seemed to overshadow the main plot way too much and took away from the seriousness of Rachel’s case.

I found Rose hard to like. As much as she questioned why no one took an interest in her feelings and emotions, she was the one pushing everyone away from her. Understanding that she was going through some tough things with her friend possibly have been murdered and her mom missing, but there’s no justification to her polar opposite behaviours.

Joshua is a selfish character. Supposedly, he was the closest person to Rose, practically being family, he was more concerned about his personal mission and putting himself in harm through stupid decisions, he didn’t even try to comfort Rachel through the toughest of times.

Rachel’s case, the main plot of the book was actually interesting, and there were some times when the author tried throwing in some curveballs into the story, some worked, others didn’t. I did actually like how the truth turned out and it was a little surprise to where the truth was originally heading.

There’s also a whole lot of teenager and high school drama added to understand the backstories to help the Rachel case, and that was laid on a little too thick at times.

Overview:

This isn’t a book for an emotional investment but rather serves as a quick weekend read.

The almost high rating is only thanks to the Rachel case and how it turned out. I can’t say much for the main characters in the book, nor for the poor management of the sub-plot that ended up overshadowing yet not giving any information to answer questions.