A Murder Most Camp: A Mystery follows Mikey Hartford IV, the heir to a big supermarket empire who has been spending a large portion of his life at parties, on boats and with other distractions. When Mikey spends millions on a townhouse, his father decides to make some changes to the rules for his trust fund. Now Mikey is tasked with doing "some good" before his 30th birthday or the party is over for good. Mikey is given the job of Special Activities Coordinator at Camp Lore in upstate New York, where he will be alongside his 12-year-old Aunt, Annabelle. The camp is nothing like the places Mikey went when he was a kid and now he's living in a old cabin with a window air conditioner unit, wi-fi limited to the lodge and timed showers in the communal bathroom. The kids that are assigned to Mikey are an interesting bunch and along with his aunt, they take an interest in the local legend of a missing camper linked to a derelict cabin left on the grounds. Alongside the kids, Mikey starts investigating the story, the idea being to make a documentary film with the kids as their special summer project. But threats start to come to Mikey and Mikey realizes there is more to the story than anyone has ever discovered.
Okay, starting with the basics, this book is top-notch in terms of writing and structure. The story is tight, the clues leave enough to question and to theorize about, and everything is revealed when necessary, leaving nothing unanswered at a logical pace. Great mysteries are able to keep the reader guessing and this one definitely kept me on my toes. I had only a few things figured out before the end of the book which definitely kept me engaged with the story. The story felt like the setting of a familiar tale, a camp with a missing, possibly dead, camper where everyone has come up with their own version of events to explain it. Each step taken, every clue found, raised stakes accordingly and kept the pages turning. I wanted to know what happened to the missing camper and yet at the same time, this book is just as much about the growth of a young man who has been avoiding, well, everything for a long time. As each part of the investigation goes, Mikey is learning more about what he can handle, who he cares about and what he wants to do with his future. He's learning to let people in and how to work well with others.
Which bring me to talking about Mikey himself. Oh, this dear sweet boy, within pages of meeting him I wanted to throw his best friend over the side of whatever I could find. Every word out his mouth showed how hard he tried but also how many times he'd been burned by the people around him. His losses made him wary of making connections and his interest in films and his many references endeared him to me. I wanted Mikey to succeed. I wanted him to learn more about himself at the camp, to figure out who was dragging him down and to recognize when real people cared about him. I loved his connection to his aunt Annabelle and how he was able to help her to come out of her shell and make friends. The reveals about the two of them together made me invested in this pair from the start. I loved the way the kids, Miranda, Paula, Cody and Danny, kept Mikey on his toes with their interest in solving the mystery and how quickly they made Annabelle a part of their group. They each had things that kept them together and their belief in Mikey made me smile. Sure they picked on him but come on, they're twelve, if they didn't pick on him a little, it would not be realistic at all. And then there was Jackson, the lifeguard and cabin mate to Mikey. I really enjoyed his quick wit and his interest in crossword puzzles. I knew the moment he stepped on the page that this was the guy that would make Mikey confident and watching the two of them find each other and deal with different obstacles over the course of the book made me smile because their connection was sweet and wholesome and exactly what Mikey had been looking for.
There are a lot of different threads in this book and each one comes together to make for a very interesting tale. I loved these people and I wanted them to work together to figure out what happened at the camp. I cared about the poor girl who went missing and I cared about everyone involved in this story. The way this story wrapped up, I was impressed with how the group figured things out and who was behind it all. This has all the makings of a great mystery and DiDomizio has proven to be a master at writing an amazing book. Which is why I'll definitely be reading more from DiDomizio. Also going to keep my fingers crossed that DiDomizio decides to continue writing in the mystery genre because this was an absolutely great book. It is also worth mentioning that I wouldn't mind seeing Mikey and Annabelle teaming up to solve another mystery in the future.
Rating on my Scale: I'm giving this one the full 10 Stars. Seriously, I finished this last night and I just keep thinking about how many things worked from the plot to the people to the way it all wrapped up in the end. Overall, a very respectable mystery I'm sure other reader sleuths will be eager to try for themselves. I'll also be looking into more Poisoned Pen Press titles as each mystery I've read from them has become a new favorite.
My thanks to Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Nicolas DiDomizio for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
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