To Right the Wrongs by Sheryl Scarborough – Review

Published: February 27, 2018

Publisher: Tor Teen

Genre: YA, Mystery

Series: Erin Blake #2

Pages: 320 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 3.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Barely three weeks after catching the killer of Erin’s mother and their biology teacher, Erin and her crew are back, up to their elbows in forensics projects. But this time it’s with the full approval of their parents.

With Uncle Victor at the helm, Erin and her best friends, Spam and Lysa, are prepping a new classroom for CSI summer camp, where they will serve as camp counselors. Meanwhile, Erin’s super-hot new boyfriend, Journey, is graduating, just in time for him to take a position as Victor’s intern in the new CSI lab on campus. Journey and Victor are going to take another look at the evidence in the murder trial that sent Journey’s father to prison. The girls are under strict orders not to meddle with the murder case, but that’s easier said than done…

I was pretty impressed with Sheryl Scarborough’s debut novel To Catch A Killer last year so when I was offered a chance to review the sequel I jumped on it. The first book was a great YA mystery and it read like a fun introduction to modern forensic techniques. Definitely something that would have interested my younger self – I mean really, it interested my adult self.

To Right the Wrongs picks up not long after the events of the first book and shows how the characters are readjusting to life after their brief stint of local fame. They’re wrapping up the school year, prepping for summer forensics camp, and generally trying to act like normal teenagers. Except of course they just can’t because they’re precocious crime-solving YA book characters. The whole premise of this book is that Journey is trying to build a case to free his father from jail and of course Erin, Lysa, and Spam want to help. Whilst they’re trying to research and dig up old information people around them who may be connected to the case act suspicious, snoop around, and generally lead the reader to conclusions.

This was a really entertaining book but I don’t think it was quite as good as the first. It just didn’t leave as glowing an impression on me To Catch A Killer did. One thing in particular that stood out to me was that the characters all acted a little too YA for my tastes. It seems that Erin and Journey’s relationship has detracted from the quality of their characters. Erin turned into a character that alternated between blushing and giggling and acting like a petty little witch. Journey mostly shows up to annoy Erin and be a source of tension – his character felt under-utilized. Lysa and Spam continued to be entertaining side-kicks. Another thing that bugged me was that the ending wrapped up way too fast – I mean, where did that come from!? You can’t just lead me on with clues and suspicion if the murderer is someone who had ZERO shade thrown their way for the entire book. Is our crime solving trio really awesome if they almost get murdered and that’s how they solve the whodunit? No. It makes them seem pretty lame actually!

Aside from these two points I thought the book was pretty good, though not of the same caliber as the series opener. It’s definitely not a series you can jump in the middle of, so I would definitely start with the first book if you’re interested. One thing I particularly enjoyed were the subplots – they were really well executed and added substantially to my overall opinion of this book. I’m unsure the planned length of this series, but I would consider continuing on with it despite my lukewarm feelings toward this installment.