Wicked by Joanne Fluke

In this modern adaptation of Agatha Christine’s Ten Little Indians, we have a group of college kids staying in this old mansion for a writing workshop. Things start to go very wrong when they’re stuck on the property and fellow peers start getting picked off one by one, eerily like one student’s thriller, “Ten Little Writers.”

When starting this book, I was confused because I had no idea these were going to be college students, and then I had no idea what year of college they were even in. One girl, Angela, was going to be a freshman, but that’s all I got for deciding what age they were. It kind of read more like a young adult novel in that sense.

There wasn’t too much character development aside from our main girl, Eve. She went from being the mean girl who was going to reign the sorority and the school to being relaxed and caring. Because she was the only one who was fully developed, understandably as the MC, I didn’t care when a fellow student was picked off. There was no reason for me to care other than  “Oooo I wonder who is going to be killed next and when they’re going to start accusing each other.”

My biggest issue, and I don’t really recall it being explained, was WHY does NO ONE have a cell phone? The phone lines are disconnected to the house so they can’t call for help. You’re telling me that none of these college kids brought a cell phone with them? Yeah freaking right. College students are attached at the hip with their cell phones; I know, I used to be one. Even if the workshop had said that cell phones weren’t allowed, they still would have snuck them in to at least have them at night or during downtime. So that was wholly unrealistic to me.

I was able to figure out who the killer is pretty simply; the red herrings thrown in never detracted from who I knew it would be. There were some spelling errors, but other than that, it was still a fun and fast read.