Release Day Review ~ In the Pines (Charlie Schiffer Mysteries) by Laura Lascarso

Release Day Review ~ In the Pines (Charlie Schiffer Mysteries) by Laura Lascarso

Title: In the Pines
Series: Charlie Schiffer Mysteries
Author: Laura Lascarso
Release Date: October 23, 2018
Category: Mystery/Suspense, Bittersweet
Pages: 194

Dreamspinner  

When your high school crush is also your number one suspect, what’s a boy to do?

After the disappearance of Eastview High’s homecoming king, seventeen-year-old Charlie Schiffer must put his detective skills to work to help class heartthrob Dare Chalmers find his missing twin brother. From the gator-filled swamps of Paynes Prairie to the truck-stop strip club Café Risqué, there’s no situation too dicey for this amateur sleuth when he’s on the prowl for clues to this mystery.

Meanwhile, Dare is everything Charlie could want in a boyfriend—charismatic, handsome, polite—but as Charlie’s mother always says, the unlikeliest people can turn out to be criminals. When evidence surfaces revealing his suspects’ hidden motives, Charlie must dig deep to suss out who among them is innocent and who is guilty, even if it means betraying the man he cares for most.

5 Stars!

AROUND HERE rumors spread faster than gonorrhea, both unfortunate side effects of living in a small town.

Charlie Schiffer has basically become persona non grata at Eastview High School ever since exposing students for cheating on the SATs. He is surprised when his longtime crush, Dare Chalmers, one of the Schools most popular students, shows interest in him at a school pep rally and invites him to his birthday party. But even though Charlie agrees to go he skips out on it wondering if it might be some sort of joke. When he learns the next morning Dare’s equally beloved twin brother Mason has gone missing, Charlie begins to search for answers at Dare’s behest.

Things become extremely complicated as the mystery of Mason’s disappearance begins to unravel and Charlie finds that the list of possible suspects, including Dare, is quite long. He’ll have to put all his learned sleuthing skills to the test and eventually finds himself caught in a web of secrets and lies. Can Charlie truly trust Dare?

What I Loved: Pretty much everything, to be honest. There was a great balance of mystery and suspense with humor and romance. While this is YA it had a feeling of a good NA novel instead and I didn’t find it hard to connect with even with the MC’s being High School students. I actually found myself experiencing a flux of emotions as I got deeper and deeper into the story and the characters. I love finding books like this. If a story makes me shed tears it’s usually a winner in my opinion.

Charlie was so easy to fall in love with. Between his self-deprecating humor and his almost cynical view of his peers, I could just picture him sitting on the sidelines observing everything and everyone around him. It took me a while but I realized that he reminded me a bit of Veronica Mars who I absolutely adored. He was funny, smart, intuitive and caring. I could completely understand why he would be the go-to for his peers when it came to solving mysteries.

Dare was a bit of an enigma at first. I wanted to trust him and for the most part, I did but there was this little niggling feeling that there was more to him than meets the eye. Of course, that made the story better because it kept me on my toes.

This is a good whodunnit. I seriously was on pins and needles waiting to find out what happened to Mason. Where did he go? Why did he disappear? Was he involved in criminal activity or did he run away? There were so many questions and Ms. Lascarso did a wonderful job of slowly revealing things to keep her readers guessing.

I SPENT my weekend like most teens in the midst of a homicide investigation: I made a murder board.

What I Liked: I liked that things seemed realistic, like all of this could really happen. I didn’t find myself thinking “that’ll never happen in real life”. The story was entertaining from beginning to end and I had no problem reading it in one sitting.

What I Didn’t Like: I’m not sure I can truly recall anything I didn’t like about this story. It was well written, flowed nicely and kept me guessing. There were some good twists and turns and a few surprises. It had a great ending that actually left me wanting more stories of Charlie’s adventures. So overall, I have to say that this is a highly recommendable story.

*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by Dreamspinner Press for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***