Scenes of the Crime - by Jilly Gagnon (Paperback)

About the Book

"A remote winery. A missing friend. And they all had sour grapes. It should have been the perfect getaway. 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, never to be seen again. Emily Fischer was perhaps the last person to see her alive. But now, years later, Emily has caught a glimpse of her again at her local cafâe. Or so she thinks. 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 to do that, she needs to know what really happened on that fateful night. So she puts a devious plan into motion. She gets the girls together again under the guise of reconnecting and they return to the scene of the crime. 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 has Emily, the narrator of her own story, failed to acknowledge her involvement in the yarn she's been spinning? Suspenseful, entertaining, 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"--

Book Synopsis

An ambitious screenwriter tries to solve her friend's disappearance by re-creating their fateful final girls' trip in this riveting locked-room mystery from the author of All Dressed Up.

"Twisty and utterly bingeable . . . Each page will leave you gasping for more."--Disha Bose, author of Dirty Laundry

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.

Review Quotes

"The Gothic setting of Jilly Gagnon's Scenes of the Crime--an isolated, exclusive winery on the Oregon coast--provides the perfect backdrop for this absorbing, meta-fictional variation on a locked-room mystery, full of pointed observations about class, money, and the inherent competition that lies beneath many female friendships. Scenes of the Crime is the ideal choice for readers of Ruth Ware and Megan Abbott."--Joanna Margaret

About the Author

Jilly Gagnon is the author of All Dressed Up and the young adult novel #famous. Her humor writing, personal essays, and op-eds have appeared in Newsweek, Elle, Vanity Fair, Boston magazine, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Toast, and The Hairpin, among others. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts, with her family and two black cats.