Author:  Lauren Henderson
ISBN:  978-0-385-73777-7

Click Here To Purchase Kiss in the Dark (Scarlett Wakefield Series)

This is the third book in the YA series starring "Scarlett Wakefield," and it's just as good, if not better, than books I and II.  In this new mystery we are back at Scarlett's side.  Scarlett is a young woman who lost her parents in a car accident years before.  She was placed with her grandmother and aunt on the grounds of Wakefield Hall (Advanced Security Collegiate Prison).  Her grandmother is the grand dame of the school - a woman who seems to be stronger than any military general who ever existed.  Scarlett is the daughter of Sir Richard Wakefield, who was a rich man who basically ran the town years before.  On campus is Jase.  He's the young gardener's son who Scarlett has fallen head over heels in love with.  Although they must keep their relationship and clandestine meetings far from the prying eyes of her grandmother and his father, they meet often and are, most definitely, in love.  Now Jase's father seems far worse than Scarlett's haughty, rich grandmother.  Jase's father, upon catching the two at one point, yells, screams, and basically forbids his son to be anywhere near a Wakefield.  He's also drunk most of the time, and is an extremely sour man with a dark past who rules his household and son with an iron fist.

Plum is a young woman who was Scarlett's nemesis in her previous school.  She's been sent to Wakefield because she was caught in a drug movie on YouTube that was seen by many.  Plum is one of those girls who have followers that she's incredibly mean to, and likes to tease Scarlett incessantly about her regal family and her star-turn in an etiquette guide that the school once put out for the students.  Plum knows all about Scarlett; she knows that she is the one who was involved in the death of a young man once before.  Dan McAndrew had been Scarlett's first kiss at one time, and the poor boy had up and dropped dead, leaving her with the nickname of Boyfriend Killer.

Not only does Scarlett have to put up with Plum, she also has to try and figure out why her best friend, Taylor - a girl who is toughness personified - is all of a sudden acting meek and mild around Plum.  What exactly is the usually vocal, strong girl suddenly afraid of?  Scarlett's Aunt Gwen is who she lives with on the grounds.  They barely speak, because Gwen harbors a supreme dislike for Scarlett and the mother she was born from.  Her Aunt's eyes bug out like gobstoppers, especially when she walks into a cafe and finds Scarlett and Jase having coffee.  She begins to scream and forbids Scarlett to have anything to do with the young man ever again.  Neither of the kids can seem to understand why there is so much animosity between their two families, and soon the mystery is blown wide open.

Jase's loud-mouth father is found dead on campus.  Someone has hit him hard and moved him, by wheelbarrow, to the lake.  Scarlett and her friend Taylor are the ones who find the body, and Scarlett's beloved Jase is quickly arrested for the murder of his father.  There are many different mysterious story lines uncovered, such as where Jase found a beautiful necklace to give to Scarlett the aquamarine that turns out to be an expensive blue diamond that Scarlett's dead mother had once owned. 

The book was an extremely fun mystery, and the author promises that soon we will have another in our hands that will allow Scarlett to further her investigation and find out EXACTLY what happened at Wakefield Hall so many years ago.  I look forward to that one.  You should too.

 Click Here To Purchase Kiss in the Dark (Scarlett Wakefield Series)