4.5 stars. This one was a little different than what I was expecting. Still a good mystery with the signature twists of McManus' books, but this one was a little slower paced than the others, especially with the setup in the beginning. This book felt more like a mystery/suspense than a mystery/thriller like McManus' other books. It's really well done and the pacing works well as a suspense.

The characters in here are well developed. McManus continues to grow as her characters get better and better with each book and has come a long way since her debut novel. Surprisingly, I did guess the twist in this one when it comes to the who, but I didn't figure out the why till closer to the end, but even with knowing the who, the twist ending was well done.

Overall I really enjoyed this one, though I think my favorite is still You'll Be the Death of Me.

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3.5 stars - surprisingly complex for YA, I was impressed! ( )

When I received the new Karen McManus book, I was excited. Sure I'm not a teenager/young adult anymore (I guess being 32 puts me in decidedly adult category), and that is the age of Karen's characters, but that does not mean I cannot enjoy these reads.

High school drama is alive and well for the backdrop of "Nothing More to Tell." The school, being called St. Ambrose, was not too hard for me to visualize. There is a school I know of called Ambrose and its students, faculty, and makeup is very much like St. Ambrose. Popular teacher being murdered, students being questioned.....I wound up thinking of students/teachers I know.

Morbid isn't it.

At some periods throughout "Nothing More to Tell," I felt there were too many characters to keep track of, who were being questioned, etc. Some characters were likeable; others were decidedly NOT. (Tripp's mom, Lisa Marie, was scum of the earth.) However, most of the characters did serve a purpose which I was thankful for.

The plot line takes twists and turns with additional murders, adoptions, secret identities. I didn't fully guess the main murderer and I also didn't fully guess who had had a changed identity. So those are wins.

However, I still found myself comparing this book to "One of Us is Lying" which will always be my favorite Karen McManus offering. If you are expecting that, this book falls a little flat. But I still found it good in its own right. ( )

A stupid mistake may have cost Brynn the future in journalism that she'd planned. In an effort to make up for it, she's become an intern with Motive, a true-crime show. She's hopeful that they'll use her idea for a show, investigating the murder of Mr. Larkin, her favorite teacher at Saint Ambrose.

Four years ago, three Saint Ambrose students, Tripp, Charlotte, and Shane, found Mr. Larkin's body in the woods behind their school. Around the time of the murder, Mr. Larkin was looking into the theft of some money. After his death, the envelope of money was discovered in Charlotte's locker. The fingerprints of Shane, the boy Charlotte had a huge crush on, were found on the rock that killed Mr. Larkin. Things weren't looking good for them, especially Shane, except Tripp's account of events matched theirs. Tripp wasn't a friend of the two other kids at the time, so what motive would he have had to lie?

Brynn is convinced that there's more to the story than the three of them ever shared, and now that she's back at Saint Ambrose she's determined to find out the truth.

This started off so-so - many of McManus' characters read the same to me, at least at the beginnings of her books. There's always that one attractive guy with secrets and a chip on his shoulder, and the brainy and determined girl he's secretly crushing on. In this book, that was Tripp and Brynn.

Eventually, Tripp and Brynn started to feel more like their own people, and Brynn's investigation into the web of mysteries surrounding Mr. Larkin's death hooked me. There was a lot going on - the secret Tripp was hiding that was slowly destroying him, Tripp's horrible mother, the question of Mr. Larkin's past and what brought him to Saint Ambrose in the first place, whatever was going on with Charlotte and Shane, and more. McManus included some effective red herrings, and I can honestly say that there was a lot about the way things worked out that took me by surprise.

For the most part, all the various pieces worked well for me. I loved Brynn's younger sister, Ellie, and the romance that developed between Brynn and Tripp was sweet. The stuff with Mr. Larkin was complicated, but not to the point of disrupting my suspension of disbelief. I know those bikers were on-page for, like, two seconds, but I got a kick out of their interaction with Brynn and Tripp. I was also glad Regina existed, for Tripp's sake, and of course Al (the fluffy Samoyed best boy) was a treat.

I couldn't quite believe in Brynn's internship - you'd have thought everyone on the show could see the PR disaster coming from a mile away - but I was willing to roll with it, and it at least gave readers that excellent moment when Brynn was trying to get Tripp to trust her again.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read. Although it's a standalone, those familiar with McManus' other books will probably appreciate the brief mentions of some of her other characters and storylines (hey, true crime is Motive's thing, right?).

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Brynn's family moved away after her favorite teacher, Mr. Larkin, was killed. Now they are moving back and she is returning to St. Ambrose. While interviewing for an internship, she floats the story that her teacher was killed, and the murder hasn't been solved. She was friends with one of the 3 kids that found the body, and now that she is back in school, she begins digging into the past. However, some people don't want her to get too close to her former friend, Tripp Talbot. Yet, Brynn knows they are lying about something.
I enjoyed this YA novel and was a bit surprised about the ending. ( )