The girls are playing a dangerous game but at least it seems like they are getting closer to the real killer(s). Buuuut we’re only halfway through the arc so who knows how they misinterpreted A’s cryptic clues this time. At least New A is having her fun destroying the girls’ personal lives because they’re too distracted to search properly.

Yet with how insane their lives are, who can blame them for wanting to take some me-time to focus on the things they could reasonably solve than Ali’s convulated murder.

Spencer thinks she has a way out of Rosewood when she meets her real mom, Olivia Caldwell. Just in time too as the Hastings take away most of Spencer’s priviliges and sells her car. Yeah I totally was on her side in just ditching the mysteries and the blackmails to move to NY. But she keeps getting dragged right back in thanks to Ian’s messages. If it really is Ian who is IM-ing her? The Liars are pretty sure they saw Ian’s dead body but since the corpse is missing, everyone is starting to doubt their credibility.

And the man leading the charge is Hanna’s mom’s ex bf. And here, I thought he was the only decent adult in Rosewood. HA! Officer Wilden seems to have a secret just like the rest of them. Though Hanna is pretty much on his side for the most of the book, until his suspicious actions and mounting evidence bring her to reconsider. For the most part, Hanna focuses on her social life. Which she is able to do thanks to her most sensible action, buying a new phone so A can’t contact her. But that’s her only reasonable action as she continues her redundent climb up the popularity ladder in her eternal war agains Kate. Which includes dating Mike Montgomery.

Aria Montgomery on the other is chasing someone else’s brother, Jason DiLaurentis! She’s finally acting on her old crush but is love making her blind to Jason’s potential anger issues, his murky medical past and his possible involvement in Ali’s murder. Emily’s experiencing the same problem in Aria’s opinion as she’s so prejudiced against Jason she won’t consider any other suspects.

But that’s the only boy she’s having problems. Her sweet romance with Isaac has sadly come to an end thanks to Isaac’s judgy too-close-for comfort mother who Isaac sides with rather than Emily’s side of the story. I knew it was too good to last but still. I mourn for the potential romance especially as it brings Emily back to her Ali pedestal obssession, why can’t she let her rest?

Now this seems like a lot but it also feels like a tie-over book. Lots of interesting things happening but clearly it is setting things up as well so it’s just solid. No big revelations or character development here but the ending is enough to make up for it. Killer ends with one of the biggest cliffhangers of them all. The Ian-Jason-Wilden conspiracy seems nothing compared to who rises from the ashes. But who it is?

I’m not A, I’m not spilling the book’s secret, you have to find out for yourself.