When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.
Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.
Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.
Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.
Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart. (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)
What a clever concept! Beth Is Dead takes the concept of Little Women and reimagines it as a modern day mystery thriller, and it worked so well. The characters we know and love from the original have similar backgrounds and characterizations, like Jo is still a tomboy aspiring writer, and Amy is a mischievous artist, but that’s where the similarities end. Beth doesn’t die from scarlet fever. She’s found dead, and no one knows what happened to her.
Everyone is considered a suspect–even family. The story is told from various perspectives and timelines, which helps to better solidify what really happened to Beth, and why. Making their father a published author who makes the March family a well-known notorious name only adds to the mystery and mayhem, because everyone wants a piece. It makes the list of suspects even longer.
The writing style really kept me on my toes and I wanted to know what would happen next. Between the girls and their need to discover the truth, and the wild rush that had happened towards the end of the book, I was definitely hooked. My best friend and I absolutely loved the 90s Little Women movie adaptation when we were teens, quickly choosing who we identified with the most. For her, it was Beth. For me, Jo. This story only elevated everything for me and brought me back to a time when life was so much simpler, yet this go around, so modern and fresh. Beth Is Dead was a unique experience that was definitely a five-star read!
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