Deadly Cool

4/5 Stars

Deadly Cool

By Gemma Halliday

First in Hartley Featherstone Series
Harper Teen (Oct 11/2011)

Genre: YA/Comedic/Sleuth

I picked up this book knowing absolutely nothing about it.  My mom had read a few of Gemma's books before and told me they were funny murder mysteries. I trusted mumsy wasn't stearing me down the wrong path so I grabbed the first book I saw by her (without even reading what it was about) and began to do my own detective work.  I'm not sure if all her books are geared to YA, since my mom suggested it, and teen fiction isn't really her thing, but this one is without a question.

Hartley Featherstone is put in a very awkward situation, there are texts circulating around the school, like a bad cold virus, that her 'long time' (6 months) boyfriend Josh has been caught fooling around with the chastity queen herself and leader of the Color Girl Squad, Courtney.  It doesn't help either that at this very moment she is holding a condom in her hand that she 'found' in Josh's locker.  Madder than a bag of cats Hartley stalks off to the football field at the end of her school day to confront Josh with her BFF Sam in tow.  Unfortunately Josh has decided to ditch out on practice (not making the rumors any less convincing) and Courtney is conviently nowhere to be seen either.  Undetered Hartly and Sam venture to Josh's house to get the truth - after convincing Sam's brother that they need to borrow is eco car that wreaks of french fries. You guessed it peeps, this is when sh** hits the fan.  Given the fact that Josh is clearly home and refusing to answer either of his doors, Hartley and Sam are left with no choice than to scale his house and crawl through his bedroom window.  Once they successfully completed a little B&E, they find that Josh and Courtney are no where to be found - well almost - the pair spy a purple uniform hiding in his closet. Triumphantly Hartley  throws the closet door open to confront the harlot, only to run away screaming when she realizes there's a dead girl in the closet, and it's Courtney, and worst of all she touched her. Now Josh is murder suspect numero uno, Hartly is unconvinced (even though he's a lying, cheating donkey butt) that he's a killer, and she's going to set the recorded straight. How hard can that be right? They do it on CSI all the time.

This book was a quick fun read, very funny and while it was suspenseful, it's not dark and spooky like most murder mysteries.  I very much enjoy quick wit and really loved that about this book.  The only draw back I saw was that it was pretty predictable, nothing really surprised and my hunches were quickly proven true.  I liked this book and would recommend to anyone in the mood for something funny and 'Nancy Drew' like.  I would read more books by the author and probably continue with the series, but it's not a priority to me.