Review: Bet Your Life

Second in the Jess Tennant mysteries
By Jane Casey
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

When I finished How to Fall, I was eager to find out what happened next in Port Sentinel. By the time Bet Your Life came out, I'd forgotten what happened in the first book but picked up the second anyway since I remembered liking the first. Then it sat on my shelf for ages.

In the first book, Jess Tennant sought out the truth of what happened to her cousin Freya. In Bet Your Life, the stakes are far less personal. Local cad Seb Dawson is attacked and left in a coma, and Jess searches for the truth because Seb's younger sister asks her to - even though all signs point to Seb getting what he deserved.

Meanwhile, in Jess's romantic life, she's hung up on Will even though they broke up (which I didn't remember why), and she might be interested in Ryan. Meanwhile, Will's shady father keeps involving himself because he wants them to stay broken up. (Will's father, of course, also being one of Jess's mother's exes and the guy who is supposed to investigate the attack on Seb.)

I find this series very readable but forgettable. They're disposable mysteries about the dark underbelly of a small town full of rich people.

There is a third and final book in the Jess Tennant series, Hide and Seek. I might pick it up if I see it on sale one day, but I'm not seeking it out.

Review: How to Fall

First in the Jess Tennant mysteries
By Jane Casey
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

Jess moves, with her mother, back to her mother's childhood town.  It's a real two-horse town, and Jess doesn't just stick out because she's new, but because she looks just like her cousin who died last summer.  No one knows if Freya fell, jumped, or was pushed.  But Jess becomes determined to find out.

HOW TO FALL is filled with suspicious characters.  Freya's former best friends, former romantic rivals, and former suitors are all potential murderers.  (If, that is, someone murdered her.)  But even as Jess suspects everyone, she can't help being drawn to Will, the cute boy next door (who no one in town likes). 

The mystery of Freya's death develops fairly predictably.  (Although the actual resolution surprised me.)  At the same time, Jane Casey seeds intrigue for future books.  Jess's mother burned some bridges when she left, including leaving behind a former beau.  A former, very creepy beau.

If you like mysteries set in secretly sinister small towns, give HOW TO FALL a try.  It has some neat character work, making Freya feel developed even though she is dead the whole time.  She's very distinct from Jess.  Jess is a more realistic, tougher sort.  She fights fire with fire.

HOW TO FALL isn't the most complicated mystery, but it's full of interesting characters and a few intriguing twists.  The preview of the next book in the Jess Tennant mysteries has me eager to learn what happens next in Port Sentinel.