Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker

I never knew I would be seeing Latin phrases at my age, but this novel has many `Latin phrases that I have known for years.  This is an excellent mystery novel that gets down to rock bottom for teenagers; by using  Latin phrases such as, “Veritas vos liberabit”, which means in English, the truth shall set you free. It is quoted on page 303. This novel sparked my interest so much; I checked it out twice from the Poplar Creek Library.  The author of this novel also wrote Body Finder & other novels.

One of the main characters of the novel was Grace, who was a teen attending a venerable private high school called Pemberly Brown Academy.  I got a kick out of the way the author’s description of Grace’s handwriting.  The author’s called her handwriting, “loopy handwriting.” Grace apparently, had a big crush on her next door neighbor, who was a teen called Cameron Thompson.

  The academy had a lake on campus, where new freshman try their luck swimming across the lake at midnight before the first day of school.  The upper-class teens came to watch the freshmen, who attempt to swim across the lake.  I was a bit shocked at the attire the teens wore. The teens, the upper-class students wore lacey panties that were fancy. During another initiation at the beginning of the school year Grace died leaving her best friends Kate and Maddie as well as boyfriend Cameron devastated. 

Suddenly almost a year later Kate is receiving cryptic e-mail’s that seem to be from Grace telling her to find out what happened on that fatal night.  Kate’s search for the answer leads her back to neighbor and friend Seth, whose obsession with secret societies, and ability to get into Pemberly Brown records helps solve the mystery.  Along the way, Kate meets Liam the handsome bad boy with secrets to keep who wants to protect her, but from what?  She falls in love with him against her better judgment.  She sees Cameron sink ever deeper into drug abuse, and then disappear after leaving behind his only clue about the fatal night. Kate watches Maddie suffer from anorexia. There is a mean girl clique that turns out not to be as they seem.  Actually, little is what it seems on the surface.  Everyone is lying and keeping secrets.  Even the Latin verses located throughout the Pemberly Brown Academy have a purpose other than inspiring students. It was thought that there were 13 Latin plaques but Kate had been unable to locate that 13^th plaque.  There are sequels to this story.  Although we know what happened to Grace (read and find out) we don’t know the deeper secrets of Pemberly Brown Academy and especially the truth about the secret society or perhaps societies that are very real. 

LRD/1/8/13