Murder by Death

This book and its followup, Here's To You Rachel Robinson are the only two Young Adult books by Judy Blume that I had not read as a young adult (they were published after my time).  I saw them both at a Free Little Library and thought, why not?

It's good, but I don't know if I'm missing something reading it for the first time as an adult; some small essence of teen that can be recalled but not brought up fresh, or if this just isn't as good as Blume's other YA books.  I enjoyed it but it failed to click with me on any deep level.  

The girls' friendship is flawed from the beginning; secret keeping is a big part of the plot here, but of all the secrets kept and revealed, the biggest one

was never confronted or discussed.  How do you know something like that and not bring it up with your friend?  Keeping secrets about your own self is your prerogative, but keeping secrets that affect your bff seems inexcusable. 

Who knows though, I might have missed some subtle hint that Steph knew and was just not facing it.  Or maybe that just isn't a big deal to teens and I don't remember that far back as clearly as I'd like to.  Either way, it was still a good read, even if it wasn't a classic Blume.