The Sorority Murder: A Novel – An E! Online Best Mystery Selection and Dark Academia Thriller (Regan Merritt Series, 1)
"The 10 Best New Mystery and Thriller Books of December are Giving Us Literal Chills"--E! Online
"10 Books to Cozy Up With This December"--PopSugar
A popular sorority girl. An unsolved murder. A campus podcast with chilling repercussions.
Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party one night and never came back. Her body was found after two weeks, but the case has grown cold. Three years later while interning at the medical examiner's, Lucas discovers new information, but the police are not interested.
Lucas knows he has several credible pieces of the puzzle. He just isn't sure how they fit together. So he creates a podcast to revisit Candace's last hours. Then he encourages listeners to crowdsource what they remember and invites guest lecturer Regan Merritt, a former US marshal, to come on and share her expertise.
New tips come in that convince Lucas and Regan they are onto something. Then shockingly one of the podcast callers turns up dead. Another hints at Candace's secret life, a much darker picture than Lucas imagined--and one that implicates other sorority sisters. Regan uses her own resources to bolster their theory and learns that Lucas is hiding his own secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his real motives in pursuing this podcast--before the killer silences him forever.
"Fans of Jeff Abbott and Karin Slaughter will find this crime novel hard to put down." --Publishers Weekly on The Third to Die
"Downright spectacular... [A] riveting page turner as prescient as it is purposeful." --Providence Journal on Tell No Lies
Regan Merritt Series
Book 1: The Sorority Murder
Book 2: Don't Open the Door
Don't miss SEVEN GIRLS GONE, the next page-turning thriller from New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan!
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Community Reviews
This is the fourth book that I’ve read by Allison Brennan all 3-4star rated stories. I like Brennan’s writing; she’s a good storyteller. I was actually led to this book through the second book in the series “Don’t Open the Door” that I was initially interested in reading. However, because I’m kind of tenacious about starting series from the beginning, here I am😊
The book summary introduces the two storylines. First and foremost, the student podcast, hosted by MC, Lucas Vega, that is looking for clues to the disappearance and murder of Candace Swain, a former nursing student from Flagstaff, AZ. Secondly, there is the storyline of why Lucas is doing this now and what is he hiding about Candace Swain? While I’ve listened to a fair amount of true crime podcasts before, they’re really not my “thing”. Way too often, I believe hosts and participants (callers) enjoy taking listeners down one conspiracy rabbit hole after another for no other reason than for the entertainment value. This is why I prefer to read fictional crime thrillers for real entertainment value.
However, there is another storyline that the book summary doesn’t mention; why Regan retired from the US Marshalls after a successful and accomplished 13yr career. This is actually the one that interests me the most. Since the series is called the Regan Merritt series, it’s Regan that I want to know more about before deciding whether or not I want to continue with the series or make it a one and done for me. While some readers feel they don’t need to like the MC in order to commit to a series, I am just the opposite.
The first part of the story basically does a massive info dump on the disappearance and murder of Candace and the subsequent investigation that is still considered a cold case. This info dump is conveyed through the podcast segments. There is also the introduction of the people of interest for the primary storylines. The story flips back and forth from the present-day podcast segments, narrated by Lucas, and the entries from three years ago from Candace’s missing diary, narrated by Candace. Having spent many years searching for fugitives, Regan becomes intrigued by Lucas and his podcast and agrees to be a guest on the podcast as well as assist in the search for more clues to Candace’s disappearance and murder.
Around the 60% mark, the story delves more into the investigation and Lucas and Regan are able to narrow down the suspect list to a few strong possibilities, even though the motive remains elusive, at least until the end. The last 20% of the story, Lucas and Regan have zeroed in on the suspect and the end gets a little scary for the pair, but was satisfying. I liked Regan and will be reading the next one in the series, Don't Open the Door, which sounds good!
The book summary introduces the two storylines. First and foremost, the student podcast, hosted by MC, Lucas Vega, that is looking for clues to the disappearance and murder of Candace Swain, a former nursing student from Flagstaff, AZ. Secondly, there is the storyline of why Lucas is doing this now and what is he hiding about Candace Swain? While I’ve listened to a fair amount of true crime podcasts before, they’re really not my “thing”. Way too often, I believe hosts and participants (callers) enjoy taking listeners down one conspiracy rabbit hole after another for no other reason than for the entertainment value. This is why I prefer to read fictional crime thrillers for real entertainment value.
However, there is another storyline that the book summary doesn’t mention; why Regan retired from the US Marshalls after a successful and accomplished 13yr career. This is actually the one that interests me the most. Since the series is called the Regan Merritt series, it’s Regan that I want to know more about before deciding whether or not I want to continue with the series or make it a one and done for me. While some readers feel they don’t need to like the MC in order to commit to a series, I am just the opposite.
The first part of the story basically does a massive info dump on the disappearance and murder of Candace and the subsequent investigation that is still considered a cold case. This info dump is conveyed through the podcast segments. There is also the introduction of the people of interest for the primary storylines. The story flips back and forth from the present-day podcast segments, narrated by Lucas, and the entries from three years ago from Candace’s missing diary, narrated by Candace. Having spent many years searching for fugitives, Regan becomes intrigued by Lucas and his podcast and agrees to be a guest on the podcast as well as assist in the search for more clues to Candace’s disappearance and murder.
Around the 60% mark, the story delves more into the investigation and Lucas and Regan are able to narrow down the suspect list to a few strong possibilities, even though the motive remains elusive, at least until the end. The last 20% of the story, Lucas and Regan have zeroed in on the suspect and the end gets a little scary for the pair, but was satisfying. I liked Regan and will be reading the next one in the series, Don't Open the Door, which sounds good!
The Sorority Murder is # 1 in a series following the character Regan Merritt, she used to be a U.S. Marshall until tragedy forced her to change everything about her life starting with the perspective of her job. She has come back to her hometown of Flagstaff to let her mind settle and figure out her next steps. Due to the prodding of a family friend, she comes into contact with a college student named Lucas. He has started a project about a 3-year-old cold case which involves a sorority girl found dead named Candace after she’d been missing for a week. Lucas wants answers to what happened to her and where she was during that week. Lucas puts this idea together into a podcast called The Sorority Murder. My first thought when reading this was, I’ve read this before. It felt too similar to the Rachel Krall series by Megan Goldin just different characters and other minor differences. People are irritated by the podcast which leads to a whole mess of trouble. Regan has to step into protector mode despite her misgivings and help Lucas see this thing through. As her dad points out during a conversation: “…I’m intrigued. He asks some good questions. Maybe he’ll find the answers. Maybe you can help. … I know you don’t like unsolved murders any more than I do” (14%). We find out later that this is alluding to something in Regan’s past. As the story continues pieces fall together, but there is one thing missing. Regan can’t figure out why everything isn’t clicking clearly for her. Has she really lost her touch? I enjoyed that this book allowed me to get immersed in the case while seeing Regan in action. I always find that getting to know a character through the story itself means more to me than being given just her background. Turns out the reason characters were killed was pretty ridiculous. The killer wanted something they could never have. Although the case ended up being solved, the ending was still sad and bittersweet. The ending left me feeling melancholy because it was senseless. All of it. None of it needed to happen. As a first in the series, Sorority Murder was a great start and had me wanting to know more about Regan and hoping for the next book to be ready soon. I would definitely recommend this book to all fiction readers within the upper adult range. I don’t think teens would like it as much based on the set up and point of view. I can’t wait to review book # 2.