ALIBI Volumes I-IV: The Complete Series

Alibi
by Annie Miles, John Byrne,
Isabel Eckersley, and Sorrel Provola
Series: Contains volumes I-IV 
Publisher: Twisted Literary 
Publication date: 2012
Genre: YA Suspense/Mystery
Purchase: Barnes and Noble/Amazon 

Abigail Shelton is dead.

Spring Valley's golden girl is found floating face-down in her boyfriend’s pool, hands bound behind her back, head bleeding, drugs and alcohol in her system. Her friends are the only suspects – and they all have reasons to want her dead. Everyone has an alibi, but no one is innocent.

ALIBI is a 4-part young adult e-book series. Each one-hundred page installment reveals the perspective of a different character: the secret love, the nemesis, the boyfriend, the best friend. As their tales unfold, we learn that Abby is not as perfect as everyone believes, but she’s not the only one with secrets to hide. This page-turning tale of suspense, betrayal, murder, and lust will keep fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars up and reading well past curfew.

Alibi Volumes I-IV is a collection of four one hundred page novellas, that each delivers the POV of a suspect. Written by four different authors this murder mystery offers a refreshing and unique twist. I was captivated from page one of the first book and became immersed in the characters. The synopsis states that each has an alibi and no one is innocent. I found this to be delightfully true and consumed this in a single evening.

The tale begins after the death of Abigail Shelton at the police station. Through flashbacks each of the suspects takes us through the weeks leading up to and including the night of the murder. Twists, sub-plots and flawed characters makes this an exciting read. Since, I do not want to spoil the tale for you; I will treat this as a single book. In the novellas we meet each suspect and read their POV regarding the events that occurred. They are all flawed and the interrelationships between them was complicated and crazy! All of them have reasons to feel guilty and were up to no good; but only one of them committed the crime. Discovering their secrets, motives and fears was an awesome experience.

The players; Charlie is an Australian who is in the states to try to get a football scholarship. He is smooth with the ladies and juggling a few secret relationships. He is residing with his cousin, Ace. Did I mention he has a secret as to why he left his homeland for his senior year of high school? Palmer is an overachiever, a bastard and the daughter of a maid. She juggles school and a job to help her mother keep their home. She discovers who her father is and that changes everything. Ace is the spoiled, gifted son of a politician and executive. He lacks self confidence and feels like things are falling apart. He was Abigail’s boyfriend. Rowan is Abigail’s best friend and nerd of the group. She can be manipulative and often feels invisible. Abigail our victim can be sweet, demanding, and at times cruel. I cannot say I was particularly fond of any of them but I was intrigued.

The world-building in this collection was fascinating and refreshingly unique. I am amazed at how these four authors collaborated to make these different POV’s flow together into a tight, well written, suspenseful murder mystery. Each of the characters was well fleshed out and I believed each tale that unfolded. As I read each POV my opinion of whom the murderer was changed and I was delighted by the experience. My favorite novella of the group was Rowan.

I highly recommend Alibi Volumes I-IV to fans of murder mysteries, different POV’s and strong, flawed characters. I applaud the authors and Twisted Literary for putting together this intriguing read. I will be on the lookout for more exciting things from them.

I want to thank Twisted Literary for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

I gave this collection 4 coffee cups out of 5.