Kill You Last

Strasser, Todd. Kill You Last.

In the same style used in Wish You Were Dead and Blood on My Hands, Strasser delivers another murder mystery. Shelby's father is a fashion photographer who has fallen on hard times. When three girls who all had pictures taken by him are missing and later found murdered, many suspect practices of her father and his business are uncovered. While fraud and inappropriate contact are certainly something he's guilty of, Shelby is still hesitant to think that her father would have gone so far as to murder girls. When she meets a student reported from a nearby college, Shelby sets out to uncover the facts of what happened and try to exonerate her father. When one of her father's employees goes missing, and another (who seems to be wooing Shelby) is also murdered, Shelby knows that she has to find out what really happened before more things go wrong.

Strengths: Creepy covers and gruesome murders make these books exactly what many of my students are looking for. While I wouldn't hand these to a 4th or 5th grader, they are appropriate enough for middle school.

Weaknesses: There is a little bit of beer drinking, mention of sexual molestation occurring but no details at all, and a rather disturbing ending, but this is pretty tame compared to some of the television shows. It has been hard to get a copy of Blood on My Hands for some reason.