Dead Girls Talking

Gr 8 Up–When Bettina was six years old, her mother was brutally murdered just down the hall from where she sat and her witness testimony put the notorious Smiley Face Killer—her own father—behind bars. Bett is now a teenager living with her maternal grandparents, and her father, Trapper, maintains his innocence during their court-mandated prison visitation. Then, in their town of Wolf Ridge, bodies begin to turn up, each carved with the signature smile-shaped laceration of the Smiley Face Killer. Is it a copycat or was her father always innocent? Implausibly, Bett just happens to be the one to stumble upon each of these new bodies. She leverages a new friendship with Eugenia, the local mortician’s daughter, to investigate the murders, wondering about her father’s guilt when she was the one who sent him to prison. This fast-paced serial murder mystery is loaded with thrilling moments and complex questions that readers will stick around to see answered.