Liar's Beach

by Katie Cotugno

Overview

The New York Times bestseller!

A new take on Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery The Mysterious Affair at Styles, with iconic detective Hercule Poirot recast as a brilliant, brash teen girl named Holiday, and narrated by her childhood friend Linden, an athlete-scholar who fits right in at his elite prep school—all the while hiding some secrets of his own.

Linden knows he doesn’t belong in elite Martha’s Vineyard. But when his prep school roommate, Jasper, invites him to spend the end of the summer at August House, his family’s massive beachfront estate, Linden tries to fit in. It’s not hard—after all, he’s been lying for years. And he’s not the only one….

Everyone at August House is ready for a wicked good time So when someone is found unconscious in the pool after a night of partying, it’s quickly labeled an accident. But Linden begins to wonder. . .

As does Holiday, Linden’s childhood friend and the only person on the island who knows the truth about his humble background. There’s nothing Holiday loves more than a mystery, and she’s convinced there’s a killer on the Vineyard. And now it’s up to them to figure out who.

"Pulse-pounding."—PW

"Scorching."—Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593433287
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Series:	Liar's Beach , #1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	13,978
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	900L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Katie Cotugno is the New York Times bestselling author of messy, complicated feminist YA novels including 99 Days, How to Love, Fireworks, Top Ten, 9 Days & 9 Nights, You Say It First, and Liar's Beach, as well an adult novel, Birds of California. She is also the coauthor, with Candace Bushnell, of Rules for Being a Girl. Her books have been honored by the Junior Library Guild, the Bank Street Children’s Book Committee, and the Kentucky Association of School Librarians, among others, and translated into more than fifteen languages. Katie studied Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College and received her MFA in Fiction at Lesley University. She lives in Boston with her family. Visit her online at katiecotugno.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/10/2023

None of Michael Linden’s affluent prep school classmates know that he wouldn’t be able to afford his tuition without his lacrosse scholarship, or that his mother cleans houses to make ends meet. Linden isn’t the only one who’s been putting up a front, though; his roommate Jasper’s family has been embroiled in recent legal trouble. But hidden truths won’t ruin the two-week trip Jasper has planned for himself, Linden, and a group of fellow students at Jasper’s family vineyard house. Linden is hoping for a relaxing summer, but that seems unlikely after he bumps into Holiday, a childhood friend who ghosted him. Hookups and fun in the sun are had, until someone is found unconscious in the pool. Holiday, who loves a mystery, insists they investigate, but as the teens get closer to the truth, their secrets begin to unravel. An uneven tone oscillates between high-society angst and camp sleuthing, sapping momentum from this pulse-pounding departure by Cotugno (You Say It First), which borrows elements from Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Even so, Linden’s potent romance with Jasper’s twin sister, Holiday’s resolute detective skills, and conversations surrounding classism ably propel the narrative. All characters are white. Ages 12–up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Liar's Beach:

"Sumptuous, clever, and dripping with danger, Liar's Beach is the mystery read of the summer! I couldn't put it down."—Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, author of Friends Like These

"A sun-drenched mystery full of scandalous secrets that kept me turning pages all night long."—Amy Christine Parker, author of Flight 171

★ "Compelling equally as a detective story, a character study, and series launch...has the razor-sharp feminist perspective that [Cotugno's] fans know and love."—Booklist, starred review

"This scorching glimpse of life (and death) among the moneyed classes hits its marks."—Kirkus Reviews

"Pulse-pounding."—PW

From the Publisher

2023-03-14
A summertime stay on Martha’s Vineyard confirms everything Linden thinks about rich people.

Best known for emotional YA romances, Cotugno tries her hand at an emotional whodunit—and readers who can roll with the weird attraction her protagonist seems to exert on the two main young women here may find themselves caught up in an engrossing whirl of, as the title promises, lies, secrets, and louche living. Hardly has he arrived for a two-week stay at palatial August House than Michael Linden and his host and boarding school roommate Jasper’s twin sister, Eliza, are bedroom-bound; his ghosted former platonic friend Holiday turns up; and Greg, despised boyfriend of another houseguest, winds up in a coma after an apparent accident. Dragged along by Holiday, who, along with inexplicably letting bygones be bygones, turns out to be an enthusiastic amateur sleuth, scholarship student Linden finds plenty of fuel for his (supposedly) secret resentment of the privileged classes and the way they can get away with anything. Though not, as it turns out after a comfortably conventional denouement complete with surprise confession, murder. Also, as a tease at the end suggests, for all that he comes clean about several secrets of his own, Linden leads the pack in the “things to hide” department. Aside from one prominent supporting character—a brown-skinned lacrosse champion—the central cast reads White.

This scorching glimpse of life (and death) among the moneyed classes hits its marks, if a bit mechanically. (Mystery. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews