Betrayal by Gregg Olsen

review by Maryom

When Olivia Grant, a British student on an exchange trip to the US, is stabbed to death at a party the police have too many suspects and not enough evidence. Could Beth, the girl she was staying with, have been the killer? Or maybe the party's teenage hostess, Brianna, who seems more concerned with the mess and inconvenience than the fact that someone was killed? When the police investigation seems to be going round in circles, Beth's friends Hayley and Taylor Ryan decide they should try their hand at detecting. What they discover though is a mystery in their own past.

Betrayal is actually two stories in one - firstly the murder of Olivia grant, based loosely on a real crime (the Amanda Knox case) and secondly the mystery of the Ryan twins' family secrets. To be honest, I found the second to be the more interesting but unfortunately this seems to be a plot arc that's going to run over the whole series and as such doesn't tie off neatly at the end of Betrayal. I felt the main 'whodunnit' story was a little thin, though in fairness I may be comparing it to adult crime novels, but I guessed quite early on what had happened - although the writing style still had me hooked.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Splinter
Genre - Teen, crime

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