It Should Have Been You by Lynn Slaughter is a fast-paced, well-plotted YA whodunnit about a teen girl whose twin is murdered and who must investigate to clear her name and avoid a similar fate (available January 30, 2018).
Read an excerpt from It Should Have Been You, then make sure you're signed in and comment below for a chance to win a copy of Lynn Slaughter's thrilling YA mystery!
Living in her sister's shadow has never been more dangerous.
Five months ago, Clara Seibert’s twin sister was murdered. Struggling under the weight of newfound and unwanted attention, the only thing that makes Clara feel normal is ghostwriting an advice column for her school’s newspaper—until she starts receiving threatening emails in her staff inbox.
“It should have been you … but soon.”
Convinced that her email stalker blames her for her sister’s death and is out for revenge, Clara undertakes her own investigation to clear her name and avoid a similar fate. Can she solve the murder before it’s too late?
Chapter One
Five Months Later
There are 132 steps from my locker to our high school newspaper office. I know, because I’ve counted them.
“Hey,” I said to Brett, at step 29. We’d gone out a few times last spring. Until he suddenly lost my phone number. Permanently.
His eyes darted around, as though he were searching for cover. “Hi Clara,” he mumbled and sped past me.
When I turned the corner at step 57, Emily, Monica, and Amber were huddled together giggling. They fell silent and stared at me. Then they turned their backs and started whispering.
Subtle.
I tried not to look like I was hurrying, but I was. Forty-four steps to go.
Oh God. Was that Lester Thompson hurtling toward me?
“Hey,” he said, as he fell in beside me. “You’re lookin’ fine.”
“Gee thanks. Is that a new tattoo on your neck?”
He pulled a toothpick out of his mouth. “Satan’s spawn. What do you think?”
“It’s certainly big.”
“Yeah, I got a great deal on it. So, like, I was thinking, you want to go out Friday night?”
I pulled up to an abrupt stop at 117. “Lester, why would you possibly want to go out with me? I’m not exactly your type.” I pointed at my pale blue hoodie and jeans. “See? No black.”
He crinkled his forehead. “Yeah, but babe, you’re so pretty, and like…a dangerous chick.”
Great. Now I was Leonard High’s new pinup girl for danger—Date her if you dare. “Thanks, but I’m not your babe. And I’m about as dangerous as your grandmother.”
“Not what I’ve heard.” He ran his tongue along his lower lip.
Eww. “Don’t tell me you believe everything you hear.”
“Oh, come on.” He grabbed my arm and stroked it. “A tattoo of Satan would look great right here.”
“Leave me alone.” I wrenched my arm free and pushed past him.
“Bitch,” he yelled after me.
I shivered and kept walking. Almost there.
Three. Two. One. I thrust the door open and spun inside, relieved to be back in this broom closet of an office with its ancient radiator.
As I booted up my computer, Lester’s voice calling me a bitch echoed in my brain. Funny. I used to think I was pretty nice. But it was getting harder and harder to be Ms. Warm-and-Friendly when half the student body treated me like a leper who’d escaped from the colony.
I reached for my backpack, pulled out my compact mirror and stared glumly at myself. I didn’t get it. How did one lone zit in a heart-shaped face scream “dangerous”? I scrunched up my face and tried to look bad-ass.
CJ poked her head in the door. “What the hell are you doing?” she boomed out. Her vocal volume seemed designed to make up for being vertically challenged. She claimed to be five feet, but that was a definite stretch.
“Practicing looking tough. You know, changing my image. Getting that ‘Mess with me, and I’ll kick your butt’ look.” I gave her my best hairy eyeball.
She giggled. “Trust me. This is not a good look for you. You don’t look scary—just deranged.”
“Not what I was going for.” I tossed my mirror on the desk. ‘So what’s up with you?”
“Covering the Spanish Club meeting. They have the best food. Want to come?”
“Bring me something? I want to work on my column.”
She must have heard the slight tremor in my voice. “You okay?”
I swiveled my chair around. “Not really. Lester Thompson just asked me out—said he wanted to date a dangerous chick.”
CJ gave me a hug. Then she snorted, and her shoulders shook.
“Are you laughing?” I pulled back to look at her.
“I can’t help it! He worships Satan, for God’s sake. The thought of the two of you together… well, it’s hilarious.”
“Maybe for you. How would you like to be known as ‘a dangerous chick’?”
“And this matters because… why? The guy’s a douche. And he’s like one of the biggest dealers around.”
“You’re kidding.”
“You really don’t know? You’ve led a sheltered life.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Now you’re kidding.”
She bit her lip and blushed. “Sorry.”
“The last few nights, I’ve been getting these weird phone calls. When I pick up, there’s no one there. You don’t think it could be Lester, do you?”
“No idea. But I thought you changed your phone number.”
“We changed both of them—my cell and our landline after… you know….” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to push away the memories of those threatening calls we’d received in the days after my sister’s murder.
“Well, shit,” she said.
“Double shit.” I eked out a smile. “But don’t worry. I’ll be fine. You need to go cover that meeting and write such an amazing article that Tony can’t help but notice you.” Tony Sweigart was our newspaper’s swoon-worthy editor-in-chief. He looked like Chris Hemsworth. I wasn’t one of his fans, but he had plenty of them, including CJ. Half the girls in our class had crushes on him.
She shrugged. “Like that’s going to happen.”
“Hey, don’t sell yourself… short.”
“Ha, ha.”
“Okay, okay—Go! You’re gonna be late.”
After CJ took off, I turned back to my computer and imagined sending Lester’s ask-out to my mental trash bin labeled “Awkward.” Just as I was typing in the password to access my column, Wolfman dropped by to pull up some stats on the basketball team, but he didn’t stay long. Neither did CJ when she returned with a heaping plate of enchiladas for me. I was the only one who preferred working in the office rather than hanging at Starbucks. Or going home.
By the time five o’clock rolled around, my eyes were starting to glaze over. I pulled out my thermos and poured myself a cup of hot chocolate laced with hazelnut coffee, enough of a perk-me-up to tackle the e-mail that had just come in:
Dear Since You Asked,
My boyfriend and I have been together for the past nine months. He’s everything I ever dreamed about – romantic, thoughtful, and a great kisser!
Lately, though, he’s been acting kind of distant, and spending a lot of time talking with “Kimberly,” a girl from his neighborhood he’s known forever. Then on Sunday night, my BFF’s sister told me he was at the movies with Kimberly, and they were all over each other.
When I confronted him, he insisted his mother “made him” take her out, because she’s a family friend going through a hard time. He says he still loves me and wants to be with me, but Kimberly’s his friend, and he also needs to spend time with her right now.
What should I do? This just doesn’t feel right.
– Confused
I twirled my pencil, liking the feel of its ridges against my fingertips. After a few minutes, I typed:
Dear Confused,
You think it doesn’t feel right? You know it doesn’t feel right because it’s not. Your skunk of a boyfriend may be a great kisser, but it’s only his aftershave that’s covering up the smell of what he’s shoveling.
Kimberly may be having a tough time, but does your A-1 kisser really expect you to believe that his mother ordered him to cheat on you to “comfort” Kimberly?
It’s up to you, but if it were me, I’d be running, not walking, away from this relationship. For one thing, it’s getting mighty crowded, what with Kimberly and your boyfriend’s mother honing in on the action. Why not un-confuse yourself by finding a nice guy who wants to be your friend first and foremost?
– Since You Asked
I read my response several times, changing a word here and there. I couldn’t help giving myself a thumbs-up after I pressed “Save.” Yup, I was definitely getting my mojo back. Time to send a silent prayer of thanks to the Writing Gods who were clearly hanging in with me.
Maybe I couldn’t solve my own problems, but it sure felt good to lose myself, even for a few hours, in someone else’s. When I was writing, it was like I could push all my anger, guilt, and grief over Moura’s death into a tiny room, turn off the lights, and close the door.
Moura and I hadn’t had much in common—well, other than our looks. We weren’t identical, but we might as well have been—same dark, curly hair, wide mouths, and violet-blue eyes that people always commented on. Lately, though, I’d been thinking there was something else we’d shared. Writing catapulted me into the zone, and music seemed to take her to another universe, where all else fell away.
Moura. I could still see her, still hear her, playing her beloved Chopin, the notes pouring out like rain from the heavens. My eyes burned, and I pressed the heel of my hand against myforehead.
My twin would never play the piano again. She’d never go to Juilliard or fall in love and get married.
So why was I still around? Why did I get to write and hang out with my BFF and binge on Law and Order reruns and ice cream from the Mellow Moose? It didn’t make sense.
I took one of those deep cleansing breaths the therapist had taught me. Keep going. Focus on now. You can do it. Pretty lame, but hey, it was all I had.
Peeking into the adjoining classroom, I spotted Mr. Bradford, our advisor, who almost always stayed late too. Just knowing he was around made me feel better. With his stooped shoulders and button-down shirts that looked like they’d never seen an iron, Mr. B. looked like a crumpled pretzel with a bad comb-over. But he was one of my heroes. He’d never given up on the newspaper business—which wasn’t dead yet, but was definitely on life support—and these past five months, he hadn’t given up on me either.
I e-mailed my response to Mrs. Rivera, our senior counselor who checked my columns over, then scrolled through my column inbox to see if anything new had come in. That’s when I saw it: “Confidential for Since You Asked.” Nothing very unusual about the message heading—nearly everyone who writes thinks their problem, and especially their identity, is highly “confidential.”
But this wasn’t a typical request for help. For one thing, it was only seven words long:
It Should Have Been You
…But soon
The room swam around me. It was like a hideous rerun of the stuff people had posted on Facebook and Twitter right after Moura died. I’d closed all my accounts and sworn off all social media, but the messages were branded into my brain. “The wrong twin died.” “How can you live with what you’ve done?” “Watch your back, you worthless piece of shit.”
This wasn’t supposed to be happening again. Not now, not when I was finally making it through a whole day without heavy meds.
Meds. I still had a stash at home. The thought of sinking back down into that fuzzy numbness where I felt little, and cared even less, was so tempting.
No. Not going there. Not going to give in, not when I was just starting to get my life back. Whoever had sent this e-mail hadn’t only meant to scare me, but to sock me hard where it already hurt—where it always hurt. Wasn’t this the refrain that played over and over again in my head, the one I was sure my sister’s legions of admirers were thinking? It should have been you, Clara, not her.
And maybe they were right.
But it wasn’t me. I was alive, and Moura was dead. Murdered.
Was I next? Oh God, what should I do? I couldn’t lay this on my parents. Mom was a walking zombie, wearing her grief around like a heavy shroud. And between trying to hold Mom together and doing his own grieving, Dad was on overload.
Mr. B. was like a second father to me, but I couldn’t tell him about this. If he knew I’d been ID’d as the Since You Asked writer by someone out to hurt me, he’d pull me off the column so fast I’d be spinning out the door.
I could call 911. But if I did, the police would hook me back up with my least favorite excuse for a human being, Detective Luis Martino. In the days after Moura’s murder, he’d put me through hours and hours of hell, trying to get me to confess. As far as I could tell, he’d gotten exactly nowhere finding my sister’s real killer, and I was still his favorite suspect.
I forwarded the message to my personal e-mail account and texted Jenny, who’d talked me off a ledge, literally, more than once. Emergency! Can I come over?
Excerpted from IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU © Copyright 2018 by Lynn Slaughter. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
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Lynn Slaughter has a passion for dance and music—from Frank Sinatra to Chopin—and her first book, While I Danced, was a finalist in the 2015 EPIC competitionin the Young Readers category. After a long career as a professional dancer, she earned her MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University. She and her husband live in Louisville, Kentucky. You can visit her at www.lynnslaughter.com and follow her on Twitter @lslaughter2.
I don’t read much YA, but loved the excerpt and have added it to my list.
Would love to read this!!
It would be like investigating her own…. Ooky! Sounds interesting!
This sounds really good! I’m finding that a lot of the new YA novels are better than so-called adult fiction lately.
thanks for chance
interesting
always like a mystery
This book is exciting! I love to read mysteries and the cover is perfect as well as the author’s last name.
Thanks for the chance to win a copy. The book sounds awesome!
Sounds good.
I enjoy the YA novels I’ve been reading lately, and this sounds like another good one to add to the mix.
I read about 4 books a month. I would love to add this to my reading list!
This looks great!
Please enter me in this sweepstakes.
Thanks —
Hoping to win
Scary story, great concept.
Scary story, great concept.
This sounds like a winner.
Yes please!
Thank you for the chance, this sounds really really good. Fingers crossed
Thank you for the preview .
Looks quite intriguing!
Would love to win!
Sounds like an exciting read!
Fascinating novel.
Great mystery.
Sounds like a winner.
This one would be MUCH appreciated!
Love a good mystery!
What a great start! I’m really enjoying this new spate of serious mysteries in Young Adult land.
This books sounds excellent. I think my daughter and I will both like it.
Great cover! It really catches the eye. I hope the story is even better
My neice would love this.
I had read a synopsis of this book somewhere (I get so many book-related e-mails that I never remember where I saw something) and have wanted to read it ever since! Not that not already drowning in books to read, but that is beside the point. Thanks for the opportunity!
This book sounds interesting and would be interested in giving it a try.
Thank you for the chance.Added to Goodreads
Sounds like a fun read.
That is a good start. You’ve hooked me. Now, send me a copy of the book so I can finish it.
The winner should be me! Yes!
Would love to read this, sounds really good. Ty for the opportunity.
Sounds like a fun read to share with my teenage granddaughter!
Great opening – has my interest. This is one I’d like to keep reading.
Great opening – has my interest. This is one I’d like to keep reading.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Thanks for the giveaway!
This looks like a good read.
Intriguing set-up!
This looks so good! My teen daughter loves mysteries and I know she’ll love this one.
Thanks for the excellent excerpt. I’d love to win a copy of
It Should Have Been You.
I’m looking forward to sharing this with family & friends
Thank you
I’m looking forward to sharing this with family & friends
Thank you
Scary! Would love it.
Scary! Would love it.
I enjoyed the excerpt; I can’t wait to see this one in print.
sounds great
I’d love to check this out 🙂
This looks like a YA novel I would enjoy at the age of 57. 🙂
I don’t believe that I have ever read anything by this author. I do however, think this would be an excellent read. It seems it will be a real nail bitter! I would love to win a copy and share it with others!
This books sounds so interesting. I hope I’m the winner!
Interesting premise. Would love to read the book.
Sounds like a great read!
I am so intrigued!