Review: "She Left" by Stacie Grey

She Left by Stacie Grey
Published May 2024 via Poisoned Pen Press
★★★

Twenty years ago, Amy Brewer walked out of a party early—and survived. Her friends were not so lucky. Now she's been invited to a weekend retreat to discuss the case...but the mix of guests is much odder than she would have expected, and it's almost immediately clear that somebody is hiding something. That not everyone will walk out of this house alive, either.

I have a thing for final girl mysteries—though I still haven't figured out quite why—as well as a thing for mysteries that take place in rambling old houses. This one has some heavy shades of And Then There Were None, though if that was an inspiration I'm happy to note that there are some significant differences that keep the story feeling fresh. (And the way communication and access to the outside world are cut off—always a challenge in contemporary books, given the prevalence of cell phones!—is innovative and honestly kind of entertaining.)

There are a number of questions left unanswered (I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers): we eventually find out who sent the package to the prison, of course, but what compelled Sean to use the contents? How would the orchestrator even know about Jonathan? There's at least one person who is far more likely to have information than to be a suspect—would the orchestrator really not try to reach out first? And what is Therese hiding, when we're told that She hadn't told them everything, but what she had told them was the truth? (137)

For some reason I'd thought that the events of the book would take place in the same place as the massacre. It's sort of too bad for spook factor that it doesn't, but it does make more sense for the plot of the book. Overall, a solid addition to the And Then There Were No Final Girls subgenre.