Murder at the Class Reunion

Kay Engels #1

by Triss Stein

Kay Engels returns to her 20th high school reunion and the murder of Terry Campbell, voted Best Looking in Her Class. As Kay puts her reporter's instinct into police business, she finds romance with the former class bad boy and uncovers a shocking secret in her own past. Then another murder brings her closer to a killer who may give her the story of a lifetime. Walker.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

253 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Triss Stein is a small-town girl who has spent most of her adult life living and working in New York City. This gives her the useful double vision of a stranger and a resident which she uses to write mysteries about Brooklyn, her ever-fascinating, ever-changing, ever-challenging adopted home. Brooklyn Graves is the second Erica Donato mystery, following Brooklyn Bones.

Reviews

[Jennifer Hoey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book and who the killer was ended up being a shock. The reader basically finds out when Kay does. The characters were fleshed out well and the author captured Kay's background well and how she is returning to her home town and finding friends among the students who ignored her intially but welcomed her back enthusiastically. I gave it four stars because the ending was abrupt and I kept looking for more pages but it just stops. Questions are answered but the ending wasn't really fleshed out.

[Birgit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have quite a looming stack of mystery novels which I recently dug into. Triss Stein's book is just one of them and unfortunatelly no book I'd really recommend anyone who loves this genre, I'm afraid. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is a cheap dime novel, because it's not, but my expectation when it comes to mystery novels is to find surprises around the corner and not to be bored from beginning to end.
Long story short: Journalist Kay heads out to a class reunion in her hometown which soon transforms from her "job" to write about small town life to a murder investigation as the dead body of a former class mate turns up. Like a sluggish river leading you from a murder to a rather predictable ending with much fluff, but no memorable characters or interesting twists along the way, this is the kind book that I manage to (almost) forget within days of reading, so I probably won't even know I ever read them in a month.
In short: A predictable who-dunnit novel that's easily read, but fast forgotten too.

[Joy Carreño · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mystery book that looses track of what the mystery is. The main character, Kay, is supposed to be a star reporter, but she gets sidetracked by her personal feelings and takes days to realize clues that the reader has long figured out. I liked Kay as a character but I don't think she was written true to who she is stated to be.