Young Adult Book Review~ Confessions: The Private School Murders by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Confessions: The Private School Murders (Confessions #2) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Hardcover, 448 pages

Expected Publication: Oct. 7th, 2013 by Little, Brown and Company

Source: Publisher/ Big Honcho Media

Wealthy young women are being murdered, and the police aren't looking for answers in the right places. Enter Tandy Angel. Her first case was the mystery of her parents' deaths. Now she's working to exonerate her brother of his girlfriend's homicide. And danger just got closer.One of the recent victims was a student at Tandy's own elite school. She has a hunch it may be the work of a serial killer... and Tandy perfectly fits the profile of the killer's targets. Can she untangle the mysteries in time? Or will she be the next victim? James Patterson keeps the confessions coming as Tandy delves deeper into her own tumultuous history and the skeletons in the Angel family closet.

It's kind of amazing, I read the first book and this book back to back, one right after the other.  I NEVER do that.  I don't remember the last time I was able to read two books from a series back to back.  So that actually speaks volumes about how much I've enjoyed these books.  Not to mention, I had a HUGE grin on my face the entire time I was reading them.

I absolutely ADORE Tandy and her family.  These are characters that really stand out. Characters that you want to know personally, that you want to hang out with and even live with.  They are fun and crazy and weird and so, so awesome!  If you read my review of the first book you saw that Tandy was an unreliable narrator and you actually find out why.  Things change a lot for this book; the narration, while similar, has changed because Tandy has changed.  She's changed a lot actually.  And I love it! I loved her from the beginning, but you'll see... there's a reason for some change here.

This book is full of mysteries and the Private School Murders is only one.  And in my opinion, is one of the lesser ones.  But fortunately that keeps the description spoiler free, because there's a major mystery from the first book that's carried over into this one where it's explored more thoroughly.  There's another, smaller mystery regarding some stuff happening in the building she lives in, then another that's carried over from the first book that isn't exactly a mystery, but sort of turns into one, and then the private school murders on top of that.  Poor Tandy has her hands full! But she's pretty brilliant in figuring things out, put Tandy on the case and it's sure to be solved! 

An amazing cast of characters with twisty and unpredictable mysteries and you've got an unputdownable story! I read this sucker in only hours while running my errands and hated every time something was finished and I had to put it down.  I read this book at the auto repair shop, a diner and a tire store and in each place I got a lot of comments as there were lots of expressions shooting across my face.

This book has a conclusion, while there are still things that could be explored, the mysteries have been solved.  I really hope that this is a series that continues on as I'm not at all ready to say goodbye to this amazing cast of characters!

Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes, all opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.