A walk in the woods on a hiking trail. A picnic basket, laughter and love.
Two teens went on the walk that day. Some said it was his idea. Some say it was hers. What everybody does know is that only one teen came back.
Now Tabitha (Tabby) Cousins is being questioned by the police. She says her boyfriend Mark fell from ‘The Split’. Ignoring the warning signs not to climb up to the infamous dangerous rock formation jutting out over a creek, Tabby and Mark did just that. Then Mark was gone.
According to forensics, Mark didn’t die from the fall.
Tabby is well known at Coldcliff High, Colorado. She’s a party girl, wearing the shortest of skirts and shorts and the skimpiest of tops, even to go to the grocery store. Only 17, she has caught herself a Princeton Athlete – Mark Forrester is a scholarship swimmer, headed for great things, and has fallen for Tabby, or so she thinks.
As more friends, students, and Tabby’s exes are interviewed by police, and then a video of Tabby pushing a guy at school goes online, everyone has an opinion about who killed Mark Forrester.
Was it….
El – Tabby’s best friend, jealous of Tabby for sucking up all the attention wherever they went. For Tabby using her to go places then forgetting she was there.
Bridget – Tabby’s sister who was never as brave or wild as Tabby, and envied her for it. Bridget is a runner and plain in Tabby’s shadow and also envies Tabby’s closer relationship with her parents.
Keegan – Mark’s best-friend for years who is jealous of all the time Mark suddenly spends with Tabby when he returns from Princeton, instead of how it used to be.
Beck – Tabby’s bad boy ex boyfriend who still has a friendship with Tabby after their breakup.
….or someone else?
Social media is on fire and then so are the local papers and blogs. Then it goes national with Hello Today and People magazine running with the story as Tabby is arrested for Mark’s murder. The Blue-Eyed Boyfriend Killer is on trial by gossip, social media and opinion poll well before she gets anywhere near a courtroom.
All Eyes on Her is a fast-paced murder mystery spelt out in viewpoints from everyone except the accused. Jumping from person to person, social media site to newspaper column to comments thrown online in anger or support and back again, the reader slowly builds their own opinion of what happened that night.
But that opinion is based on what we have read/or heard and is biased one way or another. This is of course is the power of social media and the he said/she said gossip spree that rears its ugly shark-toothed head along with video and photos taken on cellphones that are also turned into something else. Misogyny is rife as Tabby (as the survivor) is branded with every name but the devil himself.
Did she do it or not? Was Mark a control freak, or was Tabby planning something the whole time? Or is someone else telling a lie? This is a riveting murder-mystery-thriller that I couldn’t put down. We all see different things in the same situations, but do we always see what is really going on?
Gripping read.
Author – L E Flynn
Age – 16+
(Sexual Content, Strong Language)
(2022, Macmillan, Betrayal, Bullies, Conflict, Crime, Family, Friendship, Growing up, Murder, Mystery, Revenge, Secret, Hike, Tramp, Forest, Bush, Track, Fall, Push, Social Media, Comments, Opinion, Gossip, High School, jealousy, Parties, Alcohol, Accident, Jocks, Athletes, Relationships, Hooking up)