Social Suicide

Gr 8 Up—After surviving the events in Deadly Cool (HarperCollins, 2011), Hartley is working as a reporter for the school's newspaper. Her first big assignment is to write about Sydney Sanders, a Homecoming Queen contestant who was caught cheating in precalculus class. Hartley knows that she needs to get to the heart of the story, so she tries convincing Sydney to tell how she got the answers to the test. However, when Hartley goes to meet the ditzy girl, she discovers Sydney's body floating in her pool along with her laptop. The police are positive that her death is a suicide (or, since she was on Twitter right before she died, "Twittercide"), but Hartley is convinced that Sydney wouldn't have agreed to talk to her before killing herself. Now it's up to the protagonist, her friend Sam, and love-interest Chase to solve the murder before Hartley becomes the next target. Plenty of clues are left to keep readers guessing as the teens work together to uncover motives and opportunities for each of their suspects.—Natalie Struecker, Rock Island Public Library, IL