‘They’d both known something was wrong straightaway. Really super wrong. As if the whole party-chaos-house-smashed-Katie-grounded-forever thing wasn’t bad enough’
– Something Terrible Happened Last Night
[ About Something Terrible Happened Last Night ]
It’s Katie’s 17th birthday – the dancefloor is packed, the drink is flowing and Rave-fess, the Raven’s Hill School confession site, is alight with gossip. Then a huge fight breaks out, sending guests fleeing.
When Frankie, Jess and Sorcha go back to help Katie clear up her wrecked house before her parents get home, they find more than broken bottles … There’s a body on the living room floor.
[ My Review ]
Something Terrible Happened Last Night by Sam Blake will publish May 4th with Gill Books and is described as ‘the gripping teen thriller that will keep everyone guessing’. This is Sam Blake’s YA debut, following on from her multiple bestselling crime fiction novels. It is set against the backdrop of Raven’s Hill, an elite Irish private school, in the fictional town of Kilmurray Point.
It’s Katie’s 17th birthday. Her parents have flown to Italy for a family occasion but have given her their permission to host a party for her friends. Katie is popular in school and has been going out with Josh, the captain of the rugby team, for quite some time. Kate and Josh are always considered the perfect couple. After he received a scholarship to Stanford, Kate immediately put plans in place to follow him there once they were both finished school.
Katie’s best friend is Frankie but two more girls also join their friend group, Sorcha, Frankie’s cousin, and Jess, who has just recently moved from London. All four click immediately, with the gossip very much centred around Katie’s upcoming party and Rave-fess, the new online chat forum for students of Raven’s Hill. A so-called confession site, Rave-fess appeared out of nowhere by an anonymous hand and all the girls are obsessed with it, trying to figure out who’s behind all the comments. It’s just a bit of fun, isn’t it?
As the night of the party comes closer, the conversation turns to who will be there, what will they wear and what will they be drinking. Typical teenage conversations happen over coffees and socials as the excitement mounts. Katie lives in a huge house with a pool so the expectations are high for it being the party of the year.
On the night of the party, Katie loses control of the guests. The house is packed with teenagers let loose. Jess and Sorcha make a decision not to go as they are new to the school and the party scene is not really their thing. They join forces at Jess’s place and follow the action on Snapchat getting a birds-eye view of all the action almost live.
Frankie has her eye on Patrick, a rugby player that she is hoping to hook up with. He has already requested her photography skills and she plans to corner him at the party to see if they have any chance of getting together. But, with the huge crowds, Frankie is struggling to keep up with everyone.
As the alcohol kicks in, tempers are frayed and two rival rugby teams get involved in a brawl. Screaming and panic ensues and Katie is unable to calm the crowd. Her house quickly gets trashed and Katie is left distraught and afraid until Ollie, Frankie’s older brother, arrives and the situation gets back under control. After he clears the house, the plan is that Jess and Sorcha, with Frankie, will help Katie clean the place up before her parents return home. But that plan changes dramatically when a body is discovered behind the sofa in the living room. The dream birthday party quickly develops into a nightmare as the shock kicks in. Was it an accident? Was it intentional? Was it murder?
As the girls come to terms with what happened they begin to piece together the events leading up to the party in an attempt to unearth the truth. The Gardaí have someone in mind but the girls have other ideas. Together they become a formidable team, analysing facts and creating possible scenarios as they try to uncover the truth about what really happened that terrible night.
Something Terrible Happened Last Night is a fast-paced mystery with a great build-up and some unexpected twists and turns. It is set in a wealthy part of Dublin with a bunch of very confident and assertive young women. Using modern technology and common sense, the girls are super smart, piecing together photos and videos from the night in question unravelling important little snippets along the way.
There is a generation of teenagers who immersed themselves in the wonderful books of Robin Stevens and Katherine Woodfine. Now, as they are a little older, Something Terrible Happened Last Night seems to me to be a logical next choice. Aimed at 14+, it is a fun read, a whodunit with a modern twist yet also with a touch of an Agatha Christie plot. Not too gritty but with a few sharp edges, Something Terrible happened Last Night is an engaging YA novel in an academic setting. Think teen Charlie’s Angels!
[ Bio ]
Sam Blake is a multiple number 1 bestselling adult thriller writer, whose books have been shortlisted three times for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Under her real name of Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, she is the founder of Writing.ie, the Inkwell Group and Murder One, Ireland’s acclaimed International Crime Writing Festival.
Twitter ~ @samblakebooks
Love the sound of this one! x
It’s a fun read Nicki. TG I’m not a teenager. No hiding