Deadly Cool review

Description: First I find out that my boyfriend is cheating on me. Then he’s pegged as the #1 suspect in a murder. And now he’s depending on me to clear his name. Seriously?
As much as I wouldn’t mind watching him squirm, I know that he’s innocent. So I’m brushing off my previously untapped detective skills and getting down to business. But I keep tripping over dead bodies and I’m still no closer to figuring out who did it. And what’s worse: all signs seem to point to me as the killer’s next victim.

I really need to pick a better boyfriend next time.

My thoughts: This was such a cute mystery! I mean... the killing itself wasn't cute, but the story was.  And it wasn't until I started Deadly Cool that I realized how much I missed Nancy Drew type stories. I admit that the characters themselves didn’t really stand out compared to characters from other books I've read (and liked), but it was exciting. I loved when the characters had to use any clues that could be found, questioned people, and do that thing where they FINALLY remember things they hadn’t remembered before that makes the whole killing spree “make sense” in relation to who the killer was.

I also really appreciated that the connection with the killed and the killer made sense. There have been so many times that I've read a book and things are going along fine, and then the killer is revealed and it doesn't make any sense. Then it turns out that the killer was this random person who the reader either never met (because the killer had only been referred to), or met like one time. And the reasoning for why the killer killed people came from some random background story at the end of the book instead of revealing tiny clues throughout the story.

Even though the characters weren't really one of my favorite aspects of the book, I got to hand it to Hartley. She has more understanding than me, because as the story went on, she learned more and more reasons NOT to help her ex-boyfriend. But she still knew he wasn't a killer and that someone should stick up for him. 

I also loved that this was neither a my-boyfriend-is-a-jerk-sometimes-but-in-the-end-I-still-love-him type book, nor an I've-got-to-find-and-fall-in-love-with-my-soul-mate type story. Avoiding these stereotypes and reminding me of my love for mysterious  (especially fast paced ones) made this a very fun (and cute) read.