Murder at the Masquers — Bruce Kimmel

Adriana Hofstetter is back! She has just turned sixteen. To celebrate that occasion, she is writing a story for her journalism class on the unsolved 1966 murder of a highly-thought-of-but-vicious acting teacher. Said teacher is found quite dead after class one night, stabbed over sixty times. All of the nine suspects (all students) have airtight alibis, and the police at the time chalk it up to a random killing; case closed. But that was then, because after reading up on the case Adriana Hofstetter becomes convinced that one of them is the killer.

She begins a journey that leads her back to a different world and time. She methodically finds and meets the seven surviving suspects/students, as well as the teachers widow. If shes right and one of them is the killer, she might just find herself in harms way. Of course, her mother Margaret is back, listening to her beloved oldies, as are Adrianas best friend Billy Feldman and her cat Furball. And Detectives Ramirez and Coyne are back, too, as skeptical as ever. She still hates Facebook, doesnt want to know what Twitter is, and marches to the very loud beat of her own drummer.

A cooks tour of current and old Hollywood, Murder at the Masquers is funny, fast-paced, suspenseful, and a valentine to out-of-step teens. And, as usual, Adriana Hofstetter will not stop until she figures out who the killer is.