Now that the weather is finally changing to a lovely and crisp fall coziness, it is time to curl up with a new murder mystery. “Everything Glittered” is the newest novel by young-adult author Robin Talley, and if you enjoy a mystery set in a dazzling historical setting, this might be your next great read. “Everything Glittered” is a novel set in Prohibition-era Washington, D.
C., that centers around a group of upper-class girls trying to solve the murder of their school’s headmistress. Thanks to its setting, there are some wonderful descriptions of the lush styles of the 1920s, including the flapper fashions that were revolutionizing the era.
The fun and free atmospheres of speakeasies that everyone escapes to at night are contrasted against the strict upper-class society the main characters were born into. Like any good mystery author, Talley does a wonderful job of creating suspicion around each of the characters and sowing the seeds of distrust in the reader. At any moment, it seems as if anyone could be guilty.
As the plot is mainly revealed through conversations among the characters, the narrator, and, in turn, the reader, is never sure when someone is actually telling the truth. Since the story takes place during the era of Prohibition, and the main characters visit, or attempt to visit, speakeasies, the additional fact that the characters might be lying to cover up other illicit activities — besides just murder — makes it difficult to trust the words of an.
