Genre
Young adult fiction
Setting and Context
Set in Fairview, Connecticut
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person perspective
Tone and Mood
Thrilling, enlightening, optimistic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The central character is Pippa Fitz-Amobi, and the antagonist is Becca Bell.
Major Conflict
The main conflict s when Pippa Fitz-Amobi is assigned a school project to investigate the mysterious murder of Andie Bell.
Climax
The climax comes when Pip discovers the cause of Andie’s death. Pip presents the evidence to the police, and Becca is arrested.
Foreshadowing
Murder allegations against Sal foreshadowed his suicide.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The story alludes to Dorothy L. Sayers' book in which Harriet Vane is accused of killing her lover using arsenic poison.
Imagery
The narrator’s description of the events that led to Andie’s murder depicts a sense of sight. The narrator's description shows the confrontation between Becca and Andie before her death.
Paradox
The primary irony is that Andie’s sister and close friend, Becca, plots to kidnap her and hide her body in a septic tank. Readers do not expect sisters to hate each other to the point of death.
Parallelism
There is a parallelism between Pip’s suspicions about Andie’s death and the results of her investigations.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
The Bell’s house is personified when the narrator says mysteries haunt it.
