All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School's most priveleged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didn't answer the phone call that she made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can't get the image of her lifeless body out of his head.

Audrey: She's the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton's fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it - especially since she's convinced that the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.

As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement in Brighton's dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard troubles about themselves and the girl they couldn't save. (Taken from back cover)

All Unquiet Things was an amazing book! I love mysteries, and this one actually seemed realistic. It wasn't like Nancy Drew where you sometimes have to suspend belief (seriously, how does Nancy always solve the mystery?). But I could actually see Neily and Audrey going through Carly's things, subtlely questioning their friends, discussing possible suspects. They didn't somehow get access to police records or stumble across blood stains in someone's house. It was more deliberative and thoughtful and more real. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed All Unquiet Things so much. I felt like I was there with Audrey and Neily, wondering who the murderer was. And as for the actual killer - it was huge surprise. I would never have guessed the culprit in a million years, and somehow it made perfect sense. So kudos to Anna Jarzab for creating an extremely well-written mystery.

As for the characters, I really liked Neily and Audrey. I liked their alternating point-of-views, and especially that the book didn't switch narrators every other chapter. Sometimes that can get tiresome because I constantly have to be aware of whose speaking or else I get confused. In this book, I only had to readjust my perspective a few times, instead of twenty. Carly was also interesting, because she was a puzzling character at times. I enjoyed seeing her in flashbacks and trying to decipher her character.

Another thing - if you've read The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard, these books are pretty similar. I read them back-t0-back, so I was even more aware of the similarities. Mainly they both have the main character/love interest dead for the story and you get to see the character through flashbacks and diary entries. The stories are really different, but when if you think about it, how many books employ this theme? So if you liked one, you'll probably like the other.

9 out of 10.