I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lucy Preston just wants to go on vacation. But being the daughter of a famous private detective means that sometimes, your beach vacay goes off the rails a bit. Think: a clandestine meeting at an abandoned amusement park—except instead of a meeting, Lucy and her mom find a body. Because of course they do.

As Lucy’s mom is swept into top-secret detective stuff, Lucy sets out to investigate her mom’s mysterious connection with this town. Lucy’s snooping sets her on a collision course with Audrey Nelson, the mysterious girl on the motorcycle who was there the night they found the body. Lucy has questions, and Audrey has answers, but there’s this tiny problem: Lucy’s mom is investigating Audrey’s mom . . . for murder.

Everyone has something to hide, and if Lucy and Audrey can’t work together to uncover secrets that go back generations, there will likely be another body found at the base of the old roller coaster. And this time it might just be Lucy’s.

Short and Sweet Review

It’s spring break and Lucy is ready for a beachside vacation, but on the way her mom makes a pitstop in the town of Haeter Lake to help an old friend. When they arrive they find the person dead and it turns into a big investigation and Lucy’s mom Katie feels the need to stay and help, after all this is her hometown and this man helped raise her. We learn that this man is Pierce Anselm and in this small town the Anselm family is rich and they have power. Katie trusted Pierce but the rest of the family she doesn’t and she warns Lucy to keep a low profile. We also meet Audrey who was at the park the night Pierce died and all eyes are on her and her mother. Lucy and Audrey team up to solve this murder and uncover the secrets of this small town.

I absolutely hated this book and I’m going to blame that on the characters. We alternate between Lucy and Audrey’s POVs. Lucy doesn’t know a lot about her mom’s past so coming to Haeter Lake is her chance to learn about her mom and her grandparents. Lucy comes into town ready to be a spring breaker and then she turns into someone who wants to avenge her grand parents whom she didn’t even know. I found Lucy to be whiny and she never followed instructions. Her mom told her to stay away from the investigation but Lucy still goes and does whatever she wants and a few times she gets caught and that was the most frustrating thing. I wouldn’t have minded if she was stealthy but she was getting caught at every turn and the amount of times her mom had to tell her to back off was annoying. We also have Audrey who was at the scene of the crime and the Anselm’s have it out for her and her mom. Audrey doesn’t make things better because she’s mouthing off and being caught in the wrong places. Neither of this characters were Nancy Drews they were more like bumbling idiots. I didn’t like the romance, I’m not sure why a few days in Lucy and Audrey were already sleeping in bed together when they just met. I think the plot and story were great but everything about Lucy and Audrey turned me off and it was a struggle reading this book knowing that they were bad at being impromptu sleuths. I would have liked this book better if it focused around Katie coming back to her hometown and solving the mystery and dealing with the Anselm’s, but seeing as this is a YA and focusing around Katie would make this an adult book we’ll have to put this idea on the shelf.

Overall, I’m upset that I didn’t like this book. I love a good mystery but I also like characters who are capable of solving a mystery or just not getting caught so many times and looking ridiculous in the process.