The twenty-year reunion of Edgewater High School in Edgewater, Oregon bodes ill for some of the graduates.
To coincide with the reunion, the local newspaper is publishing stories about a tragedy that occurred two decades ago. At that time, a group of Edgewater high school students organized a pellet gun 'shooting event' in the town's dark abandoned cannery.
High school student Rachel, whose father Ned was a police detective, planned to skip the questionable activity.
But Rachel's half-brother Luke, the high school heartthrob, pressed a pellet gun into Rachel's hands and cajoled her into going.
The eerie dark cannery was frightening enough, but when the shooting started, Rachel panicked and randomly shot off her weapon. In the melee, Luke was shot with a REAL bullet, and a terrified Rachel accidently dropped her gun into a chute that led to the river.
Luke died and Rachel was blamed for shooting him. Legal proceedings followed, but the lack of evidence, as well as conflicting testimony from some teens who were at the cannery, got Rachel off. Still, Rachel blamed herself for Luke's death, and the grief and guilt has marred Rachel's life ever since.
Rachel is now an anxious divorcee with two rebellious teenage children, 17-year-daughter Harper.....
......and 15-year-old son Dylan.
Rachel's ex-husband Cade Ryder, an Edgewater police detective, triggered the divorce by getting involved with a colleague....something Cade deeply regrets.
Currently, the newspaper articles about Luke's death focus attention on Rachel once again, and she's getting disturbing text messages and nasty graffitti on her house. Moreover, Rachel thinks someone is lurking around her home and following her.
To add to Rachel's troubles, her daughter Harper is sneaking around with an older boy, and her son Dylan is acting squirrelly - like he's up to something.
Things get even more sinister when the murders begin. People who were at the shooting event two decades ago are being killed, sometimes in very bizarre and public ways.
Cade Ryder helps investigate these homicides while he also tries to insure the safety of his ex-wife Rachel and their children Harper and Dylan. (I have to say, the kids' behavior doesn't ring true. If people in town are being killed, and they have a connection to your mother, do you still sneak out of the window at night to meet your boyfriend? And does your younger brother act as an accomplice?)
In any case, one person who seems almost oblivious to the chaos in Edgewater is Rachel's former schoolmate Lila, who's in charge of the high school reunion. Lila is adamant about holding reunion meetings to organize the event, give out tasks, check the guest list, etc.
Rachel, whose job is to locate classmates who've moved away, wants to skip these meetings, but Lila is adamant.....despite potential reunion attendees being murdered.
Another person who seems rather cold is journalist Mercedes, who knows she can boost newspaper sales by writing article after article about the 20-year-old tragedy. Mercedes mercilessly hounds people for interviews, even after the murders start and it seems anyone might be a target.
Many secrets are revealed as the story unfolds, and there are plenty of suspects for armchair detectives to mull over. I must say it's hard to find characters to like in this story, though I was rooting for the high school Vice Principal, who has to deal with devious teens. 🙂
All in all, this is a very good mystery, recommended to fans of the genre.
Rating: 4 stars
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