The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson

A ghost narrates this tale about three friends living in northern Wisconson. Maggie has just moved to a small town on Lake Michigan and she soon makes friends with beautiful, enigmatic Pauline and quiet, loyal Liam. Unfortunately, just as Maggie is moving in, bodies of teenage girls start appearing. No one knows why or how they are being killed, but girls are no longer safe in this small community. When Pauline's family takes her away, a romance blossoms between Maggie and Liam, but how can it last when Pauline returns? Rather than being a murder mystery, this book is really a slow-moving story of friendship, romance, and that ghost I mentioned at the beginning. I have to admit, I did not think the ending was fitting or believable. In fact, I was not satisfied at all, especially with how the author dealt with the murders. But I would love to hear other opinions so read it and let me know your thoughts. (And also, why would any parents leave their teenage daughter alone for the weekend with a murderer on the loose?)

The Body in the Woods by April Henry

This is a murder mystery involving a dead girl in the woods and the three teenagers who find her body. Alexis, Ruby, and Nick have recently joined the Portland County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team, and while searching for a lost man they come across the victim. As in  most of these stories, the police tell them to leave the case to the experts, but the teenagers find themselves involved in tracking down the killer, who may be one of the hikers they encountered that day in the woods. Each of the characters has a story—Alexis is dealing with a mentally ill mother, Ruby is fixated on crime and her parents don't want her to be involved, and Nick's father died in Iraq and he wants to prove himself to be a hero. It's a somewhat predictable story, but if you like murder mysteries, it will keep you reading.

Vitro by Jessica Khoury

Sophie Crue is just trying to see her mother again when she flies to Guam and hires a pilot to take her to Skin Island. Her mother is a scientist working on the high-security island and Sophie finds out that her mother's project is to create test-tube humans with chips implanted in their heads. Sophie is plunged into a dangerous world where her own mother may be the evil force that needs to be stopped. Fortunately, Sophie's pilot is her childhood friend, Jim, and he is her partner in trying to save the Vitros from their fate. There's a lot of action in this book and many characters should be dead several times over. I found it to be implausible, but addicting the more I read. Lately I have read multiple books about scientists engineering people to do their bidding—including Phoenix Island and Undivided.