Book Review | Murder She Wrote: By The Time You Read This I’ll Be Gone by Stephanie Kuehn

Hello my fellow booklovers, another day, another book review! Being on holiday is really inspiring me and I love it. Today I’m reviewing a book that got my out of my reading slump. To this day I live by thrillers and mystery books being my go to to get back into reading and this book certainly did that.

By the Time You Read This I'll Be Gone (Murder, She Wrote, #1) by Stephanie Kuehn
Published by Scholastic Press on October 4, 2022
Genres: Murder, Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult Fiction
Amazon | Waterstones
Goodreads

Small town murders.
Big time thrills.
A suspenseful, modern update of the classic mystery TV series that's perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying, Sadie, and Gossip Girl.
"Killers walk among us. Statistically, at least one of them knows your name…"
Beatrice Fletcher is obsessed with unsolved murders in her small town of Cabot Cove, Maine like her great-aunt Jessica, the famous mystery writer. But when her best friend Jackson goes missing, this time the mystery is personal.
Then Jackson fails to show up for a late night meet-up, and instead, Bea stumbles upon three students from the elite Broadmoor Academy: overly-friendly and slightly vicious Leisl, her aloof twin brother, Leif, and Carlos, who knows more about, well, everything than he’s letting on. They’re worldly, secretive, and big on playing games like tenace, the hush-hush Broadmoor tradition where anything or anyone can be a clue to future fame and fortune, and players will stop at nothing -- including murder -- to get ahead.
If Bea wants to find Jackson, she too must join the game and play to win. Everyone in Cabot Cove has secrets, and it’s up to Bea to ferret them out before it’s too late in this thrilling modern update of the classic television show.

CAWPILE - 7.71

Trigger warnings – anxiety, depression, mention of suicidal attempts/thoughts

Did you ever watch Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury aka Jessica Fletcher? I grew up with these in my house, my mum and my grandparents would stick them on and whilst they could be a little cringey at times when the killer was someone she knew I absolutely loved them. The familiarity, the song, the opening credits it’s part of me. So when I saw this book on the Scholastic Book Fair I was running at work, I knew I had to buy it, it was calling to me and I savoured each page and absolutely loved the new generation to Murder She Wrote.

Beatrice Fletcher is the great grand niece of Jessica Fletcher, and she has been obsessed with unsolved murders. With her anonymous column, TrueMaine on the internet, Bea really takes after her aunt in more ways than one. She is incapable of leaving things alone even if it poses a threat. So when her best friend Jackson goes missing, she learns that he is one of 4 missing cases spanning decades and they all have a connection to Broadmoor boarding school and a society of mothers that are connected to these children and one was found dead. Now more than ever Bea needs to find before he’s gone forever.

This book is a new generation of Murder She Wrote, modern, diverse depict action of the classic to show and I loved it. Have I mentioned that, haha. I loved how Stephanie kept some of the originality of the to show but made it more current, like the writing a true crime column, her relationship with Jessica Fletcher and Dr Hazlett and she rides a bike round Cabot Cove. As someone who watched it, it warms my heart to see that. My only wish was more of Jessica Fletcher and hope she has more involvement in the forthcoming books.

Small town murders books are some of my favourites, it has more of familial feel, you know who everyone is without losing the storyline and it being over complicated. Whilst the plot did have so many, threads and twists and turns, it kept you, the reader, completely engaged and intrigued where this was going. This is also a testament of an episode of Murder She Wrote. I really loved Kuehn writing and I forgotten that she wrote another brilliant novel Charm and Strange which I read years ago.

Whilst it’s not a perfect YA mystery book, By the Time you Read This I’ll Be Gone I loved it for classic modern dedication of a much loved mystery series and I would recommend you read for that and fun small town mystery that will be sure to get you out of a reading slump. Fans of One of Us in Lying will love this. I can’t wait for more in the series.