Book Review: Scenes of the Crime | Jilly Gagnon

A unique take on a locked-room format mystery! An ambitious screenwriter tries to solve her friend’s disappearance by recreating their fateful final girls’ trip in Jilly Gagnon’s Scenes of the Crime.

About the Book | Scenes of the Crime

A remote winery. A missing friend. And a bunch of sour grapes.

It should have been the perfect spring break. Five girlfriends. A remote winery on the Oregon coast. An infinite supply of delicious wine at their manicured fingertips. But then their center—beautiful, magnetic Vanessa Morales—vanished without a trace.

Emily Fischer was perhaps the last person to see her alive. But now, years later, Emily spots Vanessa’s doppelganger at a local café. At the end of her rope working a lucrative yet mind-numbing gig on a network sitcom, Emily is inspired to finally tell the story that’s been percolating inside her for so long: Vanessa’s story. But first, she needs to know what really happened on that fateful night. So she puts a brilliant scheme into motion.

She gets the girls together for a reunion weekend at the scene of the crime under the guise of reconnecting. There’s Brittany, Vanessa’s cousin and the inheritor of the winery; Paige, a former athlete, bullish yet easily manipulated; and Lydia, the wallflower of the group.

One of them knows the truth. But what have they each been hiding? And how much can Emily trust anything she learns from them… or even her own memories of Vanessa’s last days?

Suspenseful, propulsive, and interspersed with scenes from Emily’s blockbuster screenplay, Scenes of the Crime is an unforgettable mystery that examines culpability, the shiny rearview mirror of Hollywood storytelling, and the pitfalls of female friendship. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

Review | Scenes of the Crime

It can be hard for a locked room mystery to stand out when there are so many books (especially recently) who are taking a chance on the format. Scenes of the Crime by Jilly Gagnon may have fallen into the camp of entertaining but forgettable locked room mysteries about a group of girlfriends on a trip who are keeping secrets from one another, if it weren’t for the narrative style.

Gagnon’s main character Emily is a screenwriter, and she begins to narrate the story of what happened in part through scripted scenes. It leant a sense of drama and removal from reality to the story in a way that kept it fresh.

Emily was one of a group of five friends who went to a winery in Oregon during college after a particularly grueling semester to relax after exams. But when queen bee Vanessa Morales goes missing without a trace on the getaway, the friends’ lives are changed forever.

Fifteen years later Emily has gone on to become a screenwriter on a sitcom, which she finds somewhat dull and formulaic. She dreams of writing her own script someday. While at a writer’s café she sees someone who looks exactly like Vanessa, the friend who disappeared so many years before. Emily was the last one to see Vanessa alive—a secret she has kept all of the years since. Now, she may have inspiration to write a screenplay based on Vanessa, if only she can find out what really happened to her?

Emily convinces the group to get back together one more time at the very same winery where Vanessa disappeared. Included are the four remaining members of the original group. There is Brittany, who is now a wealthy mother of two and Vanessa’s cousin, whose grandparents still own the winery where Vanessa disappeared. Paige went on to work in wine and liquor sales, but has never forgotten Vanessa or how important she was in her life. Lydia was always the most quiet but also the best listener, and went on to become a successful game developer.

When the four reconvene, it soon becomes clear that one of them is pushing to reveal all of their secrets. Strange events begin to occur, and clues to long-buried secrets appear in their rooms. Everyone has their own story of the night Vanessa disappeared, and none of them are keen to share it. Everything builds up until the truth is finally revealed, and it’s clear none of them are going to be the same again.

I liked the take on what initially seemed like another girls’ weekend mystery about Emily using the story as inspiration to write a screenplay. The scenes from the present and past are interspersed with script pages, and it was hard to tell when Emily was taking artistic liberty with the portrayal of events. I loved the structure to the book!

At times certain parts dragged on, but the last 25% moved lightning fast. These women all held secrets from one another, and there were a lot to reveal. Vanessa is an absent figure looming over the story. All four women were obsessed with her friendship. Vanessa seemed to offer closeness and pull it back as a way to hook her friends in, and none of them have moved past it even fifteen years later.

 A unique take on a locked room mystery and a fun ending, this is a book that is an easy binge read for the psychological thriller lover.

About the Author | Jilly Gagnon

Jilly Gagnon is currently based in Salem, Massachusetts, but is originally from Minnesota, a fact she’ll likely inform you of within minutes of meeting you. She is the author of Love You, Mean It; Scenes of the Crime; All Dressed Up; and #famous (a young adult novel).

She’s represented by Taylor Haggerty of Root Literary (for all fiction writing), and Uwe Stender & Amelia Appel of Triada Literary (for works co-authored with Mike MacDonald).

You can connect with Jilly on instagram. She’s an especially good conversation partner if you love amazing cocktails, terrible television, or talking to your cats.