Trouble Is a Friend of Mine Book Review

Title: Trouble Is a Friend of Mine
Author: Stephanie Tromly
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
Publication Date: August 4, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0525428404


336 pp.


ARC provided by publisher


There are hi-jinks aplenty in this screwball mystery by Stephanie Tromly. Zoe is the new kid at school when she meets Digby, a weird, smart, completely impossible boy who drags her into an investigation of a missing girl. An investigation that may be linked to Digby's sister, who also went missing years before.

The dialog snaps, crackles, and pops as Zoe becomes Digby's somewhat willing accomplice in break-ins, drug deals, and fictional class assignments ... all in the name of finding the truth.

The action is over the top, from a mysterious cult next door to a Gatsby themed winter formal where nothing goes right. It reads like a television pilot that's been turned into a YA novel, because while one mystery is wrapped up, another is remains, sending up for a sequel. And there's nothing wrong with that if it's done well. Fortunately, Stephanie Tromly has created eccentric-yet-believable characters who you, like Zoe, couldn't resist following on another adventure.

I'd recommend Trouble Is a Friend of Mine to readers who enjoyed Dangerous by Shannon Hale or Save the Enemy by Arin Greenwood.