The murder of a first-place winner rocks a small-town high school in the third thriller from the author of Cross Your Heart, Hope to Die.
With the killer of the Peach Blossom Queen still on the loose and the festival on hold, everyone is on edge in the small town of Paradiso, California. Amid all the horror and sorrow, one good thing has happened: the hunkiest guy in school likes Hope Hubbard. It's a dream come true for the high school computer whiz (and sometimes bookie) . But she's not betting on everything getting back to normal soon.
As a tornado of rumors swirls through town, a few suspects are cleared while others emerge. The killer could be anyone - a respected citizen, the school's heartthrob teacher, a best friend, even a boyfriend. The three candidates still in the running for Peach Blossom Queen must rethink their strategies. And even when Hope discovers a pivotal piece of evidence, it may be to too late to save the town's reputation - and the next victim.
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Grade 6-8 --One of Paridiso High School's beauty contestants, Raven Cruz, is missing. Peggy Sue and April have already been murdered, so who's next? Readers won't know unless they read the next installment in this series. There is something that smacks of subliterature in a book with an unresolved plot; it does not seem worthy of reading. The action is farfetched and includes a scene in which two sleuthing friends visit a father incarcerated in the state penitentiary, and another in which a computer hacker breaks into a California Classified Information data bank to find previous crime records--right out of War Games . If something by Lois Duncan or Ellen Emerson White still doesn't hook reluctant readers, this could be motivational. Better, though, to let teens seek it out on their own than to dip into tight allotments to buy this one. --Phyllis Zucker Singer, Beach Channel High School, Rockaway Park, NY
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