by Meg Gatland-Veness
Publisher: Pantera Press, 2024
Publisher’s blurb
‘I think it was one of us,’ Walter says … ‘We had the perfect opportunity. Everyone’s thinking it, I’m just saying it.’
The last thing Hallie and her drama classmates expect to find on a high school scavenger hunt is a dead body. In a town with a population of about thirty-six, no one has experience with murder investigations, but now everyone’s asking who killed Ms Lovelace.
The drama kids thought they were the only people nerdy enough to be at school on a Sunday. When they learn that Adam Tolentino, football star, drama-club nemesis and the hottest boy in school, was there too, Hallie is given the task of finding out what he knows – but she soon learns there’s more to Adam than meets the eye.
Although still grieving her favourite teacher, Hallie knows the show must go on. Managing a musical and a murder investigation is a lot, but Hallie and her friends won’t give up on Ms Lovelace – or each other.
Review
by Lidia Kathrine
What’s Murder Between Friends is a young adult fiction novel which deals with not only the realistic issues teens face, such as having a sense of belonging and finding their place in the world, but also the very adult reality of death when they discover the murdered body of their drama teacher, Ms. Lovelace. The novel opens with drama students Hallie and her friends, Walter, Dimitri, Dorothy and Penny finding the body of Ms. Lovelace in the school during a scavenger hunt. As Hallie and her friends investigate the murder and set out to uncover the culprit, the theme of jealousy is explored as they attempt to unearth Ms. Lovelace’s secrets. They need to find out what Ms. Lovelace hiding, her relationships with the various characters throughout the novel, and the possible motives for her murder.
Meg Gatland-Veness expertly depicts what teenage relationships and friendships are like, and it was great watching the relationships between the six-core group, led by Hallie and Walter, unfold and see how they worked together to try to solve the murder and to protect each other from the other students at the school. Getland-Veness also examines the social divide that exists at school between the ‘nerds and jocks’ and attempts to subvert this through the developing friendship and subsequent relationship between Hallie and Adam. Furthermore, against the backdrop of trying to investigate the murder there are many musical theatre references which add some lighthearted moments to the narrative. Gatland-Veness explores the notion of dysfunctional families through Penny and Dorothy and, as we later learn, within Hallie’s own family. The importance of acceptance of who we are is explored through Dimitri. Other themes which are examined and relate to the very real experiences of teenagers are sexuality, suicide, drugs, abuse and anorexia, and are well handled by Getland-Veness and add an emotional complexity to the narrative.
As Hallie is the narrator of What’s Murder Between Friends, the reader doesn’t question her narrative or version of events. However, as the story unfolds, we as the reader, like her friend Walter, begin to question how honest Hallie is being, “Walter gives me a funny look as if he knows I’m lying”. This is further compounded by the fact that we learn Hallie attempted to protect her family when her father’s connection to Ms. Lovelace is revealed, as was his relationship with Dorothy’s sister, Veronica, who ‘committed suicide’.
The reliability of Hallie as the narrator is further undermined by the multiple red herrings that Gatland-Veness provided throughout the novel and leaves the reader questioning everything Hallie is telling them and the direction that she is steering us in. This is further compounded by Gatland-Veness forcing the reader to wonder how involved Walter is in the events that have unfolded, and whether he could potentially be the murderer. After all he is fixated on discovering who the murderer is, and is pointing fingers at everyone within the friendship group as potential murderers. And Hallie describes him as “the boy who would do anything for me” when the connection between Hallie’s father and Ms. Lovelace come to light.
One of the most interesting and intriguing elements of What’s Murder Between Friends, was the twist at the end. So, who did kill Ms. Lovelace, and why? The answer took my breath away. Terrific read.