THE LAST ONE TO FALL

Urgent messages lead two friends to the site of a murder.

When one member of a group of high school students is killed at an abandoned warehouse in their seaside town, his fellow classmates have boatloads of motives—and few have alibis. This teen suspense pick is divided into sections taking place before and after the crime. It also features dual first-person narrators: Savana Caruso, a high schooler who moved to town with her mom several years ago after her parents divorced, and Jesse Melo, her next-door neighbor and crush who has a troubled family of his own. After receiving a cryptic text asking for help that seems to be from Jesse, Savana heads out at night to the warehouse her classmates used as a summer party spot and is shocked when she sees someone falling from a window several floors aboveground. Jesse went to the warehouse after receiving a mysterious message of his own. Savana and Jesse, both of whom are suspects, decide to work together to try to catch the killer. The book’s format includes police memos, online messages, audio recording transcripts, and other documents that play a role in the case. This variety, along with the fast pace—the narrative hits the ground running from the first page—will maintain readers’ interest and keep the pages turning as they try to guess what really happened on that fatal night. Most characters read White.

A one-sitting read for teens who love a whodunit.