Nearly Found

Gr 9 Up—In this sequel to Nearly Lost (Penguin, 2014), Nearly Boswell is excited about her new internship in the forensics lab of the local police station and is ready to put her past nightmares behind her. That is, until the corpse of a girl from her trailer park is brought in and a vicious cycle begins in which all of the incoming bodies are in some way tied to Nearly. With her internship on the line, she decides not to tell the police about her connections to the victims, and she begins a string of poor choices. Together, the teen and three acquaintances from school embark on a dangerous journey to shed light on their fathers' pasts and uncover the serial killer. While the pacing of this novel is considerably slower than that of the first installment, the writing is equally good. All of the characters are well developed, but the story lacks the strong emotions and engaging voice of the previous volume. While this contemporary mystery is well thought out and all of the pieces fit well together, the ending is anticlimactic and most readers will have guessed the killer. Moreover, Nearly's poor choices don't seem to have any consequences, and though she conceals information, destroys evidence, steals from the storage locker, and breaks her disclosure agreement, there's no mention of losing her internship.