The Meadowbrook Murders

By Jessica Goodman

"The perfect dark academia read, filled with murder, twists, a jaw-dropping mystery and very privileged people doing deliciously bad things." --Danielle Valentine, New York Times Bestselling author of Two Sides to Every Murder

A page-turning murder mystery set at a prestigious New England boarding school about how telling the truth can come at a deadly price from the New York Times bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us and The Counselors.

Secrets don't die.

It's the first week of senior year at Meadowbrook Academy. For Amy and her best friend Sarah, that means late-night parties at the boathouse, bike rides through their sleepy Connecticut town, and the crisp beginning of a New England fall.

Then tragedy strikes: Sarah and her boyfriend are brutally murdered in their dorm room. Now the week Amy has been dreaming about for years has turned into a nightmare, especially when all eyes turn to her as the culprit. She was Sarah's only roommate, the only other person there when she died--or so she told the police to cover for her own boyfriend's suspicious whereabouts. And even though they were best friends, with every passing day, Amy begins to learn that Sarah lied about a lot of things.

Liz, editor of the school newspaper and social outcast, is determined to uncover the truth about what happened on campus, in hopes her reporting will land a prestigious scholarship to college. As Liz dives deeper into her investigation, the secrets these murdered seniors never wanted out come to light. The deeper Liz digs, the messier the truth becomes - and with a killer still on campus, she can't afford to make any mistakes.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593698711
• ISBN13: 9780593698716
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Dark times at boarding school

This was a quick read with short chapters and two viewpoints that made the book go by pretty fast. Told via Amy (best friend to Sarah and found the bodies) and Liz (journalist for high school paper looking for her big break) who are thrown together provides a nice balance as they try to find out how Sarah and Ryan were murdered and by who. There are red herrings and twists sprinkled in between the comparisons of the haves/have nots and locals/outsiders (which is a common theme in Jessica Goodman's books) which kept the story flowing, though it did have a few slow spots. I had to keep reading though to figure out the mystery and that was a fun journey because I kinda knew, but got thrown a couple times. That makes it a good mystery. I did prefer Liz's viewpoint over Amy's though both had good parts. I found Amy a bit too up and down, and her devotion to Joseph irked me because it seemed extreme. But, I knew it was pretty accurate due to them being teens and all emotions. I definitely would not recommend Meadowbrook as a good boarding school though, very very lacking in oversight and to many people getting into trouble! Makes for a good story though.