Two Can Keep a Secret

October 15, 2018
History threatens to repeat itself in a small town known for disappearing teen girls.When their mother is suddenly sent to rehab, twins Ellery and Ezra Corcoran are uprooted from California to live with their grandmother in Vermont. True-crime-obsessed Ellery knows the town is infamous for girls going missing. Her own aunt, her mother's twin, disappeared 23 years ago, never to be found. Just five years ago, Lacey Kilduff was found murdered in nearby Murderland, a Halloween theme park. All eyes are on the twins as the new kids in town, and Ellery's pulled between the popular girls and Malcolm Kelly, the younger brother of Declan, Lacey's boyfriend and the person everyone suspects murdered her. Disturbing acts of vandalism pop up, threatening a sequel to events at Murderland. When Ellery's nominated for homecoming queen, the threats begin to target her and the other princesses, and no matter what he does, Malcolm keeps ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time, making for an easy scapegoat. Alternating between Ellery's and Malcolm's perspectives, the mystery unfurls at a deliciously escalating pace, filled with believable red herrings and shocking twists. Readers will furiously turn pages until the satisfying end. Though the students are predominantly white, Ellery and Ezra are biracial (white and Latinx), and Ezra is gay. Malcolm is white, and his best friend is a bisexual Korean-American girl.Masterfully paced with well-earned thrills and spooky atmosphere worth sinking into. (Thriller. 14-18)

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Starred review from October 22, 2018
A dead body in the middle of the road (the high school’s science teacher) welcomes twins Ellery and Ezra Corcoran, 17, to their new home in Echo Ridge, Vt., where they’ve been sent to live with their estranged grandmother during their mother Sadie’s court-appointed rehab for opioid addiction. Ellery, a true-crime buff, uses the opportunity to look into Echo Ridge’s notorious unsolved mysteries: the disappearance of Sadie’s identical twin sister after Sadie was crowned homecoming queen 23 years earlier, and the murder of Lacey Kilduff, the homecoming queen found strangled at Murderland, the local Halloween theme park, five years ago. After the science teacher dies, Ellery is nominated for the homecoming court, and someone begins to threaten Ellery and the other two nominees for queen, tagging signs and promising a Murderland redux. When one of the two possible queens goes missing, Ellery dons her amateur detective hat, putting herself and her loved ones in danger. With complex characters and intricate plotting, McManus (One of Us Is Lying) delivers a fast-paced, twisty whodunit. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio.

December 1, 2018

Gr 8 Up{amp}ndash;Twins Ellery and Ezra are traveling to Echo Ridge for the first time. Ellery, a passionate true-crime buff, knows all about the town's unpleasant history{amp}mdash;their aunt disappeared there at age 17, and just five years ago, the high school homecoming queen was murdered. Not long after, the teens settle in and land jobs at Fright Farm, the Halloween theme park where the slain homecoming queen was found. Soon, threats against the homecoming court begin popping up anew, and then another girl goes missing from Echo Ridge. Ellery becomes a target, as well. The story is told in alternating chapters by Ellery and Malcolm, whose brother was implicated in the murder of the homecoming queen; however, neither Ellery, Malcolm, nor any of the work's supporting characters are fully fleshed out. The three separate mysteries in Echo Ridge can be overwhelming to keep track of at times. While the character building may be lacking, and the story line may occasionally confuse, the history of Echo Ridge does intertwine nicely with Ellery's own family history and moves the plot along. What little romance is included serves to further the plot. Every character will be a suspect at least once, and when the mystery finally unravels, readers may not grasp the full repercussions of the conclusion for a long time. VERDICT For readers who have outgrown "Fear Street" and are looking for a similar sort of tension, mystery, and murder.{amp}mdash;Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson University, SC

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November 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 McManus follows up her smash hit debut, One of Us Is Lying? (2017), with another twisted mystery centered around wily teens. Echo Ridge is an idyllic small town in all ways but one: five years ago, homecoming queen Lacy Kildare was strangled, her body left in the presciently named Murderland theme park. The park changed its name, but the town never moved on?Lacy's body may have been the first one to turn up, but she wasn't the first girl to go missing. Ellery and her twin brother, Ezra, have just moved to Echo Ridge to live with their grandmother while their mom, whose own twin vanished in high school, undergoes a stint in rehab. When another girl goes missing, true-crime obsessive Ellery is determined to find the truth. But Echo Ridge is dangerous, and she and her family may be more involved than she knows. This is as much a social commentary as it is a layered mystery, and a somewhat abrupt finale won't keep readers from speeding their way to the end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)