Misadventures Memoirs: Little Girl Scream by Al E. Boy and F. Carod is a murder mystery set in the premium luxury resort, Hotel Amatista in Cancun. It centers around two main characters, Sofia Hernández, a woman in charge of many of the hotel’s facilities, and Dale Mathis, a visiting professor. The paths of these two intriguing characters intertwine when hotel guests start going missing to then be found tortured and murdered. They both must work together to find and stop the culprit.

The two protagonists are the highlight of the book, personally. Mathis is a simple English professor, but he holds a strong, unmovable personality where he doesn’t take nonsense from anyone but will call out someone’s faults immediately, which proved to be very entertaining. Sofia, on the other hand, is a dedicated and diligent hotel worker but where she shined was in the more casual settings that would reveal her to have a more teasing and eccentric side to her. Pairing the two of them up like this caused for amusing scenes that offered a break from the heavier aspects of the novel.

At first glance, Misadventures Memoirs: Little Girl Scream seems to be a horror novel with mystery elements, but it turns out to be more of a thriller mystery. Authors Al. E Boy and F. Carod play to the strengths of the mystery novel with interesting dialogue scenes where you could never really tell who was speaking the truth and the detective-like Mathis confronting those he thought were. I think the opening scene misrepresented the tone of the novel as a whole, however, since it started aggressively and gruesomely and gave off the impression that the novel would be more violent. This was smoothed out eventually though and didn’t impact the experience. The hotel setting feels like it is a throw-back to classic ‘whodunnits’ novels, although this has a unique resort culture and Boy and Carod avoid the usual clichés. In the end the mystery at the heart of the story was alluring and getting to the truth revealed a number of dark, surprising plot twists with a satisfying ending and culprit reveal.

Boy and Carod have created a very enjoyable mystery novel with vibrant characters that play off each other in extreme circumstances. The plot and character twists and developments had me ruminating in the days after finishing it. Misadventures Memoirs: Little Girl Scream is a thrilling murder mystery that is deeply intriguing and effortlessly spellbinding.

Pages: 419 | ASIN: B08QZ8C6N3