Because someone is taking a looong time to read and return Flawless to the library, I decided to get my Sara Shepard fix by reading her Amateurs trilogy.

Taking a step away from the mean popular girl gets murdered and her friends must figure out the truth premise that cover her Pretty Little Liars/The Lying Game series, Shepard goes to the underbelly of true crime.

You see, Seneca’s mother was murdered when she was a young girl and no one has found out who’s done it. As anyone who has suffered such a horrendous loss knows, it’s heartbreaking not to know why such a senseless act occurred and why her. Seneca may never know but she certainly hopes she will someday. Until then, she regularly checks the Cold Case website where she and other true crime afcienados, investigators and such try to piece together other opened cold cases.

One particular case that catches her eye is that of Helena Kelly who disappeared five years ago. Seneca heads over to Rhode Island to meet up with her online buddy Maddy, who turns out to be a very cute boy named Maddox to see if they can figure it out using the unexamined clues and shoddy police work that was left behind. Along with other true crime investigator, Brenden, Helena’s younger sister Aelin and Maddox’s stepsister, Madison they take an exciting chase around the city and come head to head with the possible murderer who is willing to kill again to keep them quite.

But in the biggest twist of all, they realize in the end, they did not catch the murderer. The murderer had been helping them in his own twisted game of amusing himself.

The following stories are interesting as it not only shows how the murderer is a devious chessmaster but also delves into two different yet interesting cases a la Law and Order-lite as the teens figure out the case of the week alongside the more pressing sociopath problem.

The characters are all fascinating too with differing layers of depths and flaws especially Aelin and Seneca. The two who share the grief of losing a beloved family member to a psycho and questioning what they could have changed every day while also struggling to move on. Seneca especially wallows through the grief as she also struggles to reconcile her feelings for Maddox.

Maddox is one who does not have a particular connection to the case outside of wanting to figure out whodunnit and his growing feelings for Seneca which is predictably dragged out through the trilogy. But don’t worry not in the boring needless will they-won’t they way (well outside the first book), it’s more like they’re very distracted by psychopaths hunting them. You know priorities there. But he also has an interesting but brief female stalker storyline that so rarely gets explored so that’s cool.

Aelin is kind of a classic party girl/popular girl coping with her grief. A bit cliche but she pulls her weight after she gets over her resentment of these true crime wannabees barging into her life. She also has a requisite romance that is just there but also needed to act as a foil to the murderer who”s obssessed with her.

Madison is my favorite character who gets very little spotlight which is no surprise since I always like the ones who are supporting players but she is Wonder Woman (her words), very fun and supportive.

It’s a darker read compared to her other series I think as it explores the greyness of life and grief of family members who live after someone is murdered. Plus it is more realistically diverse with a biracial lead and characters from differing economic states which adds to the realism. For while there is a cat-and-mouse chase like her other series’, it is bolstered by the nuances of the criminal mind and what makes a murderer.