Read. Write. Listen. Create.

My friend who is a librarian marked this book as ‘to read’ on her Goodreads account and I read the summary and had to check it out for myself. The concept of this book sounded very interesting and different than your usual everyday mystery. I also liked the haunted manor aspect, but that’s just me and my love for abandoned mansions!

This book is an interactive mystery, giving the reader the chance to play detective. You are given case interviews, diary entries, drawings, notes, mansion floor plans, and recounts of what the main character, Jane Parks remembers.

Sillian Parks, Jane’s twin sister, throws an overnight Halloween in March party at the historical Sophomore mansion where famous actress twins Mary and Macie once lived with their husbands. Mary and Macie mysteriously went missing in the 1950s and no one knows what happened to them.

The present-day party seems to be going okay until Jane notices Sillian has gone missing. “It isn’t until Jane finds her sister’s body that the real guessing game begins. That’s where you come in. It’s up to you, detective, to expose a present-day link between the victim, the guest list, and Sophomore Manor’s unsolved mystery” (Goodreads.com).

I thought that this was a really fun concept for a book. I gave it 3.5 stars out of 5. There were a few mistakes and sometimes it felt like it hadn’t been proofread for typos and other grammatical errors. I had to reread some parts a few times because some sentences didn’t make sense. There’s a major clue in the beginning, but it’s easy to forget about so keep a look out for that!

I wish we had a chapter from Sillian’s point of view. She’s a main character, but we don’t really hear from her. There are enough suspects to keep you guessing, but it’s still easy to know who everyone is.

Without giving too much away, a character has to start using a wheelchair by the end of the book, but I didn’t really get the reasoning behind it. They make it seem like it’s so sad for this character, but as a wheelchair user myself, I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without one so I see it as a good thing, not the end of my life type of situation.

I’m always hyper aware of how wheelchair users are portrayed and how other characters view them. It felt like the author wanted to make it seem like a bad thing that this character needed a wheelchair, when in reality a wheelchair is what keeps someone moving and out in the world when they can’t use their legs anymore. It’s not supposed to be used as a synonym for pity.

Other than a few typos and misunderstandings here and there, I thought that this was an interesting concept. I liked the use of notes and drawings as clues that were found around the mansion. I also like the historical fiction and diary entries from the actress, Mary who once lived at Sophomore Manor. It was a fun adventure.