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Dark Rooms    by Lili Anolik Amazon.com order for
Dark Rooms
by Lili Anolik
Order:  USA  Can
William Morrow, 2015 (2015)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

Although this is a mystery, there are so many gray areas in Lili Anolik's first novel that the reader will be wondering just what is really going on with the story's central protagonist.

When sixteen year old Nica Baker is discovered murdered in a cemetery behind her home, the authorities consider it a closed case after another teen, the dead girl's classmate, is also found dead. Leaving a suicide note behind, the teen explains how unrequited love can go terribly wrong.

Grace, Nica's older sister, has a difficult time with her sibling's murder, drops out of college and moves back home. She doesn't necessarily buy the police's murder-suicide explanation, so Grace takes a job at the Connecticut prep school that both she and her sister attended. Now in close proximity to Nica's former classmates, personal friends and teachers, Grace is about to discover if her misgivings about her sister's death are correct.

What takes this beyond a simple whodunit is that besides this family tragedy, Grace's life has turned into a train wreck. Besides a dysfunctional family that features a father who is now hitting the bottle and a mother who has left the household, Grace discovers she is pregnant. More to the point, she doesn't know exactly how this has happened or who the child's father could possibly be. Hmmm, you ask, what is really going on here?

That's an excellent question and one that can only be answered by delving into all the secrets this creepy, psychological suspense novel has hidden away as Grace attempts to unmask a rather elusive villain.

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