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Say Less
Not yet published
Expected 2 Feb 27The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Demon Copperhead in this new fast-paced and wickedly smart read from three-time Edgar Award nominee Lamar Giles!
Welcome to Keysbridge.
Population 5,818 and dropping.
Where I live, everyone knows something -- true or false -- about the Goodwin family. Some say the Goodwins are just a myth born from small-town gossip and lack of opportunities. Others have one of those red-string conspiracy boards that explains how the Goodwins basically built the town and run everything. We’re not supposed to ask questions here. Not if you know what’s good for you.
And yet, questions abound.
What if there really was one family that ran our town?
What if they messed up, and everything that had been working for years started to unravel?
What if that part started at my after-school job?
What if there were nine dead bodies by the end of everything?
What if it was your friends dying?
Guess I don’t know what’s good for me because I’m going to answer them all...
Welcome to Keysbridge.
Population 5,818 and dropping.
Where I live, everyone knows something -- true or false -- about the Goodwin family. Some say the Goodwins are just a myth born from small-town gossip and lack of opportunities. Others have one of those red-string conspiracy boards that explains how the Goodwins basically built the town and run everything. We’re not supposed to ask questions here. Not if you know what’s good for you.
And yet, questions abound.
What if there really was one family that ran our town?
What if they messed up, and everything that had been working for years started to unravel?
What if that part started at my after-school job?
What if there were nine dead bodies by the end of everything?
What if it was your friends dying?
Guess I don’t know what’s good for me because I’m going to answer them all...
400 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 2, 2027
About the author
Lamar Giles
33 books634 followersLamar "L. R." Giles writes books for teens and adults. FAKE ID, his debut Young Adult Thriller, will be published by HarperCollins in 2014. He is represented by Jamie Weiss Chilton of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency and resides in Chesapeake, VA with his wife.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Meela Berry lives in Keysbridge, Virginia, a small town of under 6,000 people that is loosely controlled by members of the Goodwin family. No one really knows who they are or what exactly they do, but since life is bearable in a town hard hit by the closure of a meat packing plant and plastics factory, everyone looks the other way. Meela’s family is struggling since her father lost his job as a manager at the meat packing plant and is working at the 7-Eleven, and her mother’s job demanded that she report in person to her office in Washington, D.C. Meela has been working at the R & S Supermarket, being paid under the table since she was 14. She hopes to go to college, and is devastated that she lost a scholarship to Ravena, who is also in the Future Business Leaders of America group at school. Two months previously, there was an auto accident that claimed the lives of four students from the high school, including Meela’s best friend, Toy’s, brother as well as a football player, Caleb, who was addicted to painkillers and was driving impaired. At a bonfire commemorating the four, a body is found in the flames, and it turns out to be Meela’s boss, Freddy. Freddy was a good boss, giving all of the workers $100 a month in groceries and caring about his workers, even though there were some suspicious things tied to the Goodwins that were just not discussed. When Valley shows up trying to open the store back up, he immediately picks up on Meela’s extensive knowledge of operations and asks her to be the new manager. He sweetens the deal with a lot of welcome cash, and even though Meela is a bit uncomfortable about the locked “storage” area, she takes the job. It’s tough trying to balance school and work, and she relies heavily on Ben, another worker who has a small crush on Toy. Before long, Valley brings in a day manager, Robie, whose parents had a local diner before the father died. Robie had gone off to college, but is back, and seems to know more about the Goodwins. There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to Freddy’s killer, and the workers are interested in that, so start their own investigation in Aisle 6, where there are no cameras. The one big clue they have is that Freddy had an angry conversation with someone named Wayne shortly before he died. Is this connected to a car that local rich kid Dash features from his father’s car lot? When Dash ends up dying of a fentanyl overdose along with two other high school kids, the mood in the town darkens even further. Are the Goodwins pushing drugs? Toy does some research into the family and identifies some of the descendents, which include Freddy, as well as Meela’s Future Business Leaders of America advisor, Mr. Garrett. Ben, who is living in his truck, saw Dash right before his overdose, and ends up dead. This prompts Meela and Toy to take more risks in order to find out what is going on in Keysbridge.
Strengths: Wow. I was completely invested in the operation of the grocery store in a potential food desert, but my readers will adore this for the investigation of several murders. While Meela is in high school and looking at college, this will speak to middle schoolers as well, and is mercifully free of obscenity, romance, and teen drinking. There are some intense scenes, but they aren’t overly gory or gratuitous. The Goodwins are a shadowy group who were supposedly keeping drugs out of the town, which is no small feat in today’s world. As tragedies pile up, it becomes essential to figure out what is going on, and I loved that Meela was able to overcome her own family problems to investigate. The characters, most of whom were Black, were all different and interesting, which did make the deaths hit a little hard. This did read a bit like an adult crime novel, but would be perfect for a strong reader. I would love to see so many more titles like this, although it would be better if they were around 300 pages long!
Weaknesses: Clearly, this would be too much for an elementary school, and it was on the long side for middle school. It dragged a bit in the middle, and I wasn’t completely convinced by the villains. I would rate it a solid 3 stars for middle school and 4.5 for high school, but considering how beautifully circumspect it is, I am going to give it 5 stars and buy two copies.
What I really think: This is an excellent choice for readers who liked Giles’ Fake ID (2014), which I have THREE copies of in my library. Perfect for fans of April Henry who can handle a longer book (400 pages) or readers who are into teen and adult mysteries by authors like Karen M. McManus, Holly Jackson, or Frieda McFadden. I love the cover, but it makes my recent Staples order for school (which included hand sanitizer, paper towels, and zip ties) look a little suspicious!
Meela Berry lives in Keysbridge, Virginia, a small town of under 6,000 people that is loosely controlled by members of the Goodwin family. No one really knows who they are or what exactly they do, but since life is bearable in a town hard hit by the closure of a meat packing plant and plastics factory, everyone looks the other way. Meela’s family is struggling since her father lost his job as a manager at the meat packing plant and is working at the 7-Eleven, and her mother’s job demanded that she report in person to her office in Washington, D.C. Meela has been working at the R & S Supermarket, being paid under the table since she was 14. She hopes to go to college, and is devastated that she lost a scholarship to Ravena, who is also in the Future Business Leaders of America group at school. Two months previously, there was an auto accident that claimed the lives of four students from the high school, including Meela’s best friend, Toy’s, brother as well as a football player, Caleb, who was addicted to painkillers and was driving impaired. At a bonfire commemorating the four, a body is found in the flames, and it turns out to be Meela’s boss, Freddy. Freddy was a good boss, giving all of the workers $100 a month in groceries and caring about his workers, even though there were some suspicious things tied to the Goodwins that were just not discussed. When Valley shows up trying to open the store back up, he immediately picks up on Meela’s extensive knowledge of operations and asks her to be the new manager. He sweetens the deal with a lot of welcome cash, and even though Meela is a bit uncomfortable about the locked “storage” area, she takes the job. It’s tough trying to balance school and work, and she relies heavily on Ben, another worker who has a small crush on Toy. Before long, Valley brings in a day manager, Robie, whose parents had a local diner before the father died. Robie had gone off to college, but is back, and seems to know more about the Goodwins. There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to Freddy’s killer, and the workers are interested in that, so start their own investigation in Aisle 6, where there are no cameras. The one big clue they have is that Freddy had an angry conversation with someone named Wayne shortly before he died. Is this connected to a car that local rich kid Dash features from his father’s car lot? When Dash ends up dying of a fentanyl overdose along with two other high school kids, the mood in the town darkens even further. Are the Goodwins pushing drugs? Toy does some research into the family and identifies some of the descendents, which include Freddy, as well as Meela’s Future Business Leaders of America advisor, Mr. Garrett. Ben, who is living in his truck, saw Dash right before his overdose, and ends up dead. This prompts Meela and Toy to take more risks in order to find out what is going on in Keysbridge.
Strengths: Wow. I was completely invested in the operation of the grocery store in a potential food desert, but my readers will adore this for the investigation of several murders. While Meela is in high school and looking at college, this will speak to middle schoolers as well, and is mercifully free of obscenity, romance, and teen drinking. There are some intense scenes, but they aren’t overly gory or gratuitous. The Goodwins are a shadowy group who were supposedly keeping drugs out of the town, which is no small feat in today’s world. As tragedies pile up, it becomes essential to figure out what is going on, and I loved that Meela was able to overcome her own family problems to investigate. The characters, most of whom were Black, were all different and interesting, which did make the deaths hit a little hard. This did read a bit like an adult crime novel, but would be perfect for a strong reader. I would love to see so many more titles like this, although it would be better if they were around 300 pages long!
Weaknesses: Clearly, this would be too much for an elementary school, and it was on the long side for middle school. It dragged a bit in the middle, and I wasn’t completely convinced by the villains. I would rate it a solid 3 stars for middle school and 4.5 for high school, but considering how beautifully circumspect it is, I am going to give it 5 stars and buy two copies.
What I really think: This is an excellent choice for readers who liked Giles’ Fake ID (2014), which I have THREE copies of in my library. Perfect for fans of April Henry who can handle a longer book (400 pages) or readers who are into teen and adult mysteries by authors like Karen M. McManus, Holly Jackson, or Frieda McFadden. I love the cover, but it makes my recent Staples order for school (which included hand sanitizer, paper towels, and zip ties) look a little suspicious!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you, Scholastic, for providing the copy of Say Less by Lamar Giles. This is a new author for me, and I plan to find more of his books. The beginning was a little slow, but once the story really kicked in, I couldn’t stop reading it. I loved Meela and how she rose to the occasion after the murder. I certainly don’t remember being that smart and resourceful when I was in High School! I liked Meela and Toy’s friendship, and how Meela looked out for her coworkers. I wasn’t sold on the story of what was going on at the store, and I was never clear about the Goodwin family, but I enjoyed most of the book for the characters. 3 stars
Review of advance copy received from Author
I enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged throughout the whole book. I didn't always love the different perspectives and can't lie had completely forgotten one of the big players by the end of the book. Still not 100% sure who they were in the book... but overall and engaging read that I think YA readers will enjoy!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you NetGalley and Scholastic Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
If you like small-town secrets, mysterious crime families, multiple suspects, and the feeling that literally everyone is hiding something, then you will definitely want to read “Say Less” by Lamar Giles. Before going into this review, I do want to give some content warnings, including drug use and fatal overdoses, death, murder, grief, poverty, and an injured dog who survives.
Meela Berry just wants to graduate, get out of Keysbridge, and hopefully go to college. Unfortunately, money is a problem, her family is struggling, and she loses the scholarship she was counting on. So when her boss Freddy is murdered at a memorial bonfire for four local students who recently died in a car crash, Meela suddenly finds herself with a much bigger problem than figuring out how to pay for college.
Then she gets offered the chance to manage the grocery store.
And, naturally, there are some very suspicious things happening at the grocery store.
The Goodwin family is basically the unofficial shadow government of Keysbridge. Nobody can quite agree on who they are, what they actually do, or whether they even exist in the way people claim. But everyone knows better than to ask too many questions. The town has already been hit hard by factory closures, poverty, drug use, and a lack of opportunities, and the Goodwins seem to have somehow been keeping everything running while also being connected to some very shady business.
Then more people start dying. Drug overdoses are increasing. Meela's friends are getting pulled into the investigation. Another death provides a major clue. And suddenly the murder of Freddy doesn't look like an isolated crime at all. Meela, Toy, Ben, and the others start putting pieces together, and the more they uncover, the more dangerous things become.
I really liked how the mystery developed. There are a lot of moving parts, and Giles does a good job making you question who is actually involved and who might just be caught in the middle. I genuinely did not figure out the mastermind behind everything, and when the truth finally came together, it actually made sense. There were clues scattered throughout without making the answer completely obvious.
Meela was probably my favorite part of the book. She's smart, determined, and also makes some questionable decisions. But, honestly, those choices made sense considering how desperate she was for money and how badly she wanted a way out of Keysbridge. She's not some fearless teenage detective who always knows exactly what she's doing. She's a kid trying to solve an increasingly dangerous problem while also dealing with school, family issues, and the pressure of figuring out her future.
I also really liked Toy's perspective because she is dealing with the grief of losing her brother. Having her POV alongside Meela's gives the story another emotional layer and makes all the deaths feel much more personal. There are quite a few perspectives overall, though, and I wasn't equally invested in all of them. You can definitely lose track of who’s who in this book, especially with all the subplots and various secrets going on.
The biggest issue for me was the pacing. The grocery store sections were interesting in terms of showing how much the town depends on this place, especially given the lack of resources, but some of the day-to-day management details dragged a little. Once Meela and the others really start investigating Freddy's murder, though, the story gets much more intense. The middle also slows down a bit before the mystery kicks back into gear.
I really appreciated the setting, too. Keysbridge feels like a town that has been slowly falling apart, where poverty and limited opportunities have created the perfect environment for people to become trapped in cycles they can't easily escape. The mystery isn't just about murders. It's also about who has power, who gets ignored, and what happens when an entire community becomes dependent on people who may not have its best interests at heart.
Overall, this was a really engaging YA mystery with a fantastic small-town conspiracy, lots of twists, and a protagonist who is easy to root for even when she's making questionable choices. It does have a bit of an adult crime-fiction feel, and at around 400 pages it's definitely on the longer side for younger readers, but I think older middle school and especially high school readers who love mysteries will have a great time with it.
If you like small-town secrets, mysterious crime families, multiple suspects, and the feeling that literally everyone is hiding something, then you will definitely want to read “Say Less” by Lamar Giles. Before going into this review, I do want to give some content warnings, including drug use and fatal overdoses, death, murder, grief, poverty, and an injured dog who survives.
Meela Berry just wants to graduate, get out of Keysbridge, and hopefully go to college. Unfortunately, money is a problem, her family is struggling, and she loses the scholarship she was counting on. So when her boss Freddy is murdered at a memorial bonfire for four local students who recently died in a car crash, Meela suddenly finds herself with a much bigger problem than figuring out how to pay for college.
Then she gets offered the chance to manage the grocery store.
And, naturally, there are some very suspicious things happening at the grocery store.
The Goodwin family is basically the unofficial shadow government of Keysbridge. Nobody can quite agree on who they are, what they actually do, or whether they even exist in the way people claim. But everyone knows better than to ask too many questions. The town has already been hit hard by factory closures, poverty, drug use, and a lack of opportunities, and the Goodwins seem to have somehow been keeping everything running while also being connected to some very shady business.
Then more people start dying. Drug overdoses are increasing. Meela's friends are getting pulled into the investigation. Another death provides a major clue. And suddenly the murder of Freddy doesn't look like an isolated crime at all. Meela, Toy, Ben, and the others start putting pieces together, and the more they uncover, the more dangerous things become.
I really liked how the mystery developed. There are a lot of moving parts, and Giles does a good job making you question who is actually involved and who might just be caught in the middle. I genuinely did not figure out the mastermind behind everything, and when the truth finally came together, it actually made sense. There were clues scattered throughout without making the answer completely obvious.
Meela was probably my favorite part of the book. She's smart, determined, and also makes some questionable decisions. But, honestly, those choices made sense considering how desperate she was for money and how badly she wanted a way out of Keysbridge. She's not some fearless teenage detective who always knows exactly what she's doing. She's a kid trying to solve an increasingly dangerous problem while also dealing with school, family issues, and the pressure of figuring out her future.
I also really liked Toy's perspective because she is dealing with the grief of losing her brother. Having her POV alongside Meela's gives the story another emotional layer and makes all the deaths feel much more personal. There are quite a few perspectives overall, though, and I wasn't equally invested in all of them. You can definitely lose track of who’s who in this book, especially with all the subplots and various secrets going on.
The biggest issue for me was the pacing. The grocery store sections were interesting in terms of showing how much the town depends on this place, especially given the lack of resources, but some of the day-to-day management details dragged a little. Once Meela and the others really start investigating Freddy's murder, though, the story gets much more intense. The middle also slows down a bit before the mystery kicks back into gear.
I really appreciated the setting, too. Keysbridge feels like a town that has been slowly falling apart, where poverty and limited opportunities have created the perfect environment for people to become trapped in cycles they can't easily escape. The mystery isn't just about murders. It's also about who has power, who gets ignored, and what happens when an entire community becomes dependent on people who may not have its best interests at heart.
Overall, this was a really engaging YA mystery with a fantastic small-town conspiracy, lots of twists, and a protagonist who is easy to root for even when she's making questionable choices. It does have a bit of an adult crime-fiction feel, and at around 400 pages it's definitely on the longer side for younger readers, but I think older middle school and especially high school readers who love mysteries will have a great time with it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you Scholastic and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. A thrilling mystery! Meela grew up in the small town of Keysbridge, where everyone knows something about the Goodwin family. Depending on who you ask depends on what you’ll hear. Maybe they’re myth or maybe they are the ones that control everything in Keysbridge. But really people aren’t supposed to ask or wonder about them, not if they want to be safe. But Meela had questions, ones that need to be answered. Like what happened if seven people die? And they happen to be friends? One thing is for sure you maybe you’re not supposed to ask, but Meela intends to ask everyone one and they better have good answers. Lamar Giles had me completely invested in this story and the mystery surrounding the possible existence of the Goodwin family! It was suspenseful, intense, and a complete page turner! It kept me guessing and had plenty of twist and turns! Highly recommend if you enjoy a good small town mystery!
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November 2, 2026I read a preview of Say Less, and I really enjoyed it. My son works at a bookstore, and he brought it home so that we could both read it and talk about it. My son is 14, so many of the non-murder parts of the book sparked great discussions as he enters the world of high school and teenage choices. We both loved the main character, Meena, and her bestie Toy. My only quibble was that a lot of characters are introduced early on, and I had to flip back to remember who some people were when they came up again later in the book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews