Better Left Buried

Gr 8 Up–Sixteen-year-old Lucy had no idea her mother, Katy, grew up in Haeter Lake, TN, in a mansion with the untrustworthy Anselm family. It’s a family that local teenager Audrey, from the impoverished side of town, blames for her father’s death. Then private investigator Katy, abruptly summoned home, finds family head Pierce Anselm dead at an abandoned amusement park near the mansion. Lucy is there with her mother. Audrey is there with a motorcycle and a knife. And they see each other. As Katy investigates Pierce’s death, Lucy and Audrey conduct their own risky investigation—and fall for each other. Death isn’t finished with Haeter Lake, though, and it is not finished with Audrey and Lucy. With trust thin on the ground for everyone in town, this well-paced mystery digs into generations of family secrets and scandals. The world of tiny Haeter Lake is well built and described, and who doesn’t love a mansion with secret passages? Audrey and Lucy are distinctive characters, and their sweet romance is limited to kissing. However, Lucy’s hazardous investigative tactics and total disrespect for her mother’s expertise may strain belief, as will the disappointingly slight motive for the first murder. Lucy has curly red hair, curves, and her father’s “pale” skin, where her mother’s skin is “soft brown.” Audrey has short brown hair and dark eyes. Strong language reflects the iconoclastic characters.