In the Ballroom with the Candlestick

I loved this trilogy with all the movie references and fun storylines. Well, not so fun for the students, I guess. If you love the movie and YA mysteries, this series is for you!

While this did feel like the weakest of the three books, I found the playful take on the Clue movie at the end very fun and a worthy ending to the series.

Kinda anticlimactic for me, though it doesn't help that REALLY this is a series where you should probably read the books back to back (or just have a better memory than I do) and I read them with a year in between each installment.<br /><br /><input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="a0937196-3700-4c8f-89ac-1d7911cb8531" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="a0937196-3700-4c8f-89ac-1d7911cb8531">Maybe it's a nod to the movie or something (I haven't seen it), but the alternate endings REALLY didn't work for me. I don't think you can do that in the last book in the series.<br /><br />Also I don't think the Vaughn reveal worked because of course we were expecting that all along.</label>

Well, I read this in one day so it’s obviously easy to be sucked into. Unfortunately it was probably the weakest in the series for multiple reasons, but the echoing of the multiple movie endings really pulled it down. On screen it works because you watch all the little differences, on the page it gets boring to read very similar prose in quick succession.<br /><br />The flash forward didn’t really work for me either, partially because it was mostly focused on only two members of the group who were honestly the least interesting to me and partially because <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="3769f417-5709-4f51-b0e5-596043fc2aca" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="3769f417-5709-4f51-b0e5-596043fc2aca">it undid Plum &amp; Mustard for no apparent reason?</label>. I will be disregarding the latter and just assuming Orchid got things wrong.<br /><br />All that said, this was a fun series to end the year with.

Could not put down! I read nearly this entire book in one sitting. I just HAD to find out how it turned out!<br /><br />One very small part at the end (literally one throw away line) that I found disappointing, but otherwise, such a fun conclusion to the series. I do feel like there were a few questions left unanswered, but for the most part everything wrapped up really well. And such a great unique-to-clue way to end the mystery!! I don't want to spoil anything so it's all very vague.

2.5 stars<br /><br />I am rounding up because this was still super compelling, even if I wasn't enjoying it all that much. I remembered almost all the details from book 1, but had somehow forgotten nearly everything from book 2. <br /><br />I don't choose how my brain works. <br /><br />And I don't think the author did a particularly good job of recapping past events, as I was confused for the better half of the book. I didn't remember Orchid being quite so ... annoying and obnoxious, and of course everyone saw the very final reveal coming all along. If that had not been the case, I would've eaten my shoe. <br /><br />The alternate endings were ... also there. They frustrated me because who thought that was a good idea? It just did not make any sense to throw that in there. <br /><br />This was a trilogy I liked, but the lukewarm final installment is dragging my overall enjoyment down a bit. Think I'll stick to the board game from now on.

What in the actual-<br />I was not expecting that<br />And I’m lowkey glad for the multiple endings, reminds me of the actual game :)

A celebration of the Clue franchise with welcome lore and great character arcs!<br /><br />In the Ballroom with the Candlestick is the final book (supposedly though hoping to see more of these characters) in the Clue Mystery trilogy. We pick up shortly after the events of In the Study with the Wrench with the Murder Crew at a now depleted Blackbrook Academy. <br /><br />By having a series of murders from the previous books drive most of the students away, you have a believable "isolated closed circle mystery" involving a small group of individuals composing of victims and suspects. The book does a good job of building on characters we have met briefly before (Mustard's roommate, Tanner) and involving them into the overall mystery surrounding a former inventor student of Blackbrook and the history of exploiting the work of the students. Peterfreund's weaving through perspectives pays off big time at the end and most of the characters get satisfying conclusions to their arcs.<br /><br />The favorites here are Finn Plum, Mustard and Scarlett and I wish we had more time with those characters. I cared less about Orchid and Greene but they are the main characters and one is tied to the overarching mystery. Beth Peacock is the one who ends up getting short changed and has the briefest POV time.<br /><br />Overall a great end to the trilogy but wouldn't mind seeing Murder Crew, college edition with Peterfreund at the helm.

This was my least favorite of the series. I am giving it 3 stars because of all the nods to the movie. The entire series was fun and nostalgic &amp; overall I give the whole thing 3 stars.

The author requests that nothing is given away at the beggining of the book and I'm happy to comply as there was not a single thing I liked about this. I enjoyed book 1 and thought book 2 was on the meh side, but this... this was such a craptacular mess... I'm glad I read Secret Society Girl before this series because otherwise I would never have touched another Diana Peterfreund book in my life ??‍♀️