**This blog contains adult language.**
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Please do not continue to read if you don't want to know who the “bad guy” is.
From the Back of the Book: My deadly valentine… It’s Valentine’s Day and dreams of love are filling the heads of all the students on Jessie McAllister’s quiet college campus. But romance turns to fear when two young women are found brutally murdered. No one is more terrified than Jessie. She thinks she knows who the killer is – her roommate Val’s boyfriend! Jessie is convinced that Val’s boyfriend, Art, is violent enough to kill, but her roommate is too much in love to see it – she’d do anything to protect him. Jessie decides to prove Art’s guilt herself. Can she catch him red-handed before Val becomes the next victim? Will Jessie’s discovery make her the next to die? Or is the truth even more shocking?
This book was published in 1993 and this is my first time reading it. We’ve read Daniel before, though. She wrote some of the babysitter books I’ve recapped on here. I can’t remember whether I liked her or not. I guess we’ll see how it goes. The cover is pretty boring. I usually like the one’s from the 90’s but this one falls flat. The cover of the kindle edition is much better. It shows a hand holding a bloody, human heart.
We begin with Jessie photographing some kind of crime scene. Unofficially I mean. She came across the scene on her way home and stopped to take pictures because she’s a photography major and is always looking for opportunities to grab a good shot. She avoids the body in the gutter but takes pictures of a spilled backpack, the cops, the paramedics, the skid marks on the road and some crying witnesses. I don’t know why no one is stopping her.
As she’s getting a shot of the contents of the backpack, she finally catches sight of the victim and realizes she knows her. It’s a girl named Laurie who is in one of Jessie’s classes. Jessie walks up to the detective on the scene and identifies Laurie to them. She answers a few questions about where Laurie is from (Yuma) and where she worked (the campus library). She can’t offer any other information so she’s dismissed. As she leaves, she takes a picture of the paramedics loading Laurie’s body onto a stretcher.
Honestly, unless you're employed to do so, it's just tasteless to take pictures of a dead body.
Jessie goes back to her apartment where her roommate Val, Val’s boyfriend Art, and Jessie’s boyfriend Randy are all waiting for her. She tells them about Laurie’s death and that it was probably a hit and run. Val is shocked. She knew Laurie from the library. I think Randy might have had a class with her but Art says he didn’t know her at all. Jessie is clearly shaken up so they decide to scrap the double date they had planned and stay in for the evening.
We skip to the next morning. Jessie heads to the photography studio where she works to develop her photos from the night before. An hour later she gathers them up and takes them with her when she heads to a museum to assist her boss Mr Sweeny with some fundraiser photos. Is that accurate? She's using the old fashioned put-them-in-tubs-of-chemicals-and-hang-to-dry method. Would they even be dry in just an hour?
Okay, I looked it up and it varies depending on the type of paper used and the general humidity of the environment but the easy answer is ‘no’. An hour probably wouldn’t have been enough time for her to develop everything, hang them and let them dry.
On the way to the museum, Jessie hears a news report on the radio saying that Laurie’s death is being treated as a murder investigation. Apparently the crying witnesses said the car aimed for Laurie and deliberately ran her over. The car was found about half a mile away from the scene. It had been stolen.
Jessie pulls out her photographs and looks through them. In the one with the contents of the backpack, she notices a stuffed wildcat among the books scattered on the pavement. The wildcat is the university mascot and it’s wearing a football jersey with the number 27 on it. Jessie recognizes the small stuffed animal as one the boosters gave the football team after the season. They were reported to be one of a kind and every player got one wearing his number. Randy gave his (#63) to Jessie. The number 27 is Art’s number. Jessie is sure Art never gave his away. He said he wanted to keep it as a good luck charm for when he went pro. Jessie wonders how Laurie got Art’s wildcat but then considers that someone out there might be making copies. Art is a popular player because he’s so good.
Sweeny and Jessie do the shoot and then head back to the studio. Jessie gives him her photographs to look through and he gives her a critique on all of them. He’s very focused on what will make Jessie money. In the end, he sorts out several photos and tells Jessie that the local paper might be willing to buy them. He drags her over and the paper ends up buying one of the detective looking down at the body (only the arm was visible) while a police officer laughs in the background. The paper ends up running it the next day.
We skip to Monday. Jessie goes to the library to study after classes. Val’s ex-roommate Brenda approaches her and asks if the police have questioned Art yet about Laurie. Jessie isn’t thrilled to talk to Brenda because they don’t really get along but she asks why the police should question Art when he didn’t even know Laurie. Brenda says the two of them dated behind Val’s back. She also reveals that Randy knew about it which Jessie doesn’t get mad enough about. Then she throws out a random accusation about Art using steroids which didn’t really fit into the conversation at all. I guess Daniel wanted us to know it but didn’t know how to work it in naturally.
On the way home, Jessie comes across Art. She shows him the photo of the wildcat and asks how Laurie got it. Art is instantly enraged which seems to lead credence to Brenda’s steroid accusation. He says he didn’t know Laurie and he still has his wildcat so this must be a copy. Then he tears the photo in half and stalks away. He doesn’t get far though. Brenda steps into his path and the two have an intense looking conversation. Art tries to walk away from her but Brenda dogs him, following him out of Jessie’s view.
Jessie heads back to the apartment where Val informs her that Art is coming by later. Jessie is glad to have a date with Randy so she won’t be around. She tries to tell Val what Brenda said but Val cuts her off and refuses to listen. She says that Brenda is just jealous of her and Art and is making shit up. Jessie gives up and goes to get ready for her date.
Jessie and Randy end up going out for pizza and a movie. Afterwards, she asks him if Art cheated on Val with Laurie and Randy ducks the question until Jessie mentions the photo with Art’s wildcat in Laurie’s backpack. Randy finally comes clean and admits he knew Art was seeing Laurie behind Val’s back. He says that Art intended to break up with Val to date Laurie.
So I guess we can add Val to the suspect list. If she's determined to hang on to Art, she might have killed the competition.
Odds Art is the bad guy: 50%
He feels too obvious but we don’t have much to work with here.
Odds Val is the bad guy: 50%
Randy asks if Jessie is going to tell Val. Jessie says she already tried but won't bother to try again since Laurie is dead and it really doesn’t matter anymore.
I mean….I'm guessing Val knows because it was probably her motive for murder but even if we pretend she doesn't, it still matters. If he cheated with Laurie, he'll probably cheat again and Val should be warned that he's not as invested in the relationship as she is. A good friend would find a way to tell her.
We skip to the next day. Jessie heads to the police station to talk to the detective in charge of the case. We’ll call him G because I’m not typing out his long ass name. G’s annoyed with her for selling the photo to the newspaper. It made the police station look bad. Jessie skips past all that and points out that a wildcat with Art’s number was at the scene. G already knew this because he’s a huge football fan. He says that a local shop has been selling copies so it doesn’t really mean anything. Jessie mentions that Art lied about knowing Laurie and G says that Art didn’t lie to them. He was questioned and admitted to going out with Laurie once. He then complained that Laurie became obsessed with him and wouldn’t leave him alone. G doesn’t think Art is a suspect and he basically shoos her out of the police station.
Frustrated, Jessie heads home. Val announces that they’re going to retry their double date. Jessie isn’t thrilled to spend time with Art but can’t think of an excuse to get out of it. How about “I don’t want to go”. Seriously. You don't need an excuse to say 'no'.
Art arrives and asks Val if she found his stuff. She goes into her room and returns with a couple of books, some sunglasses and a ball cap. She says she couldn’t find the hunting knife. He asks her to keep an eye out for it because it’s important to him.
Daniel really wanted us to notice that. I’m guessing someone’s about to get killed with that hunting knife.
Can a knife be a “fucking Justin moment”? Because I think it just became one.
The four of them go out for Italian food. At one point, Val gets up to go to the bathroom and Randy leaves the table to get some ice cream from the self-serve machine, leaving Jessie alone with Art. He immediately drops the nice act and says that Randy told him Jessie knows about Laurie. He asks if she told Val yet and Jessie says not yet. She tells him that he should be the one to tell her and that just pisses him off more. He tells her to keep her mouth shut if she knows what’s good for her and she’ll regret it if she tells Val anything.
Oooooh. Big scary man.
After dinner, Val and Art go to a movie. Jessie tells Randy that Art threatened her and he acts like he’s mad about it but something feels really off. Jessie says she’s going to tell Val and Randy is quick to discourage it. He says that it doesn’t matter since Laurie is dead and besides Val deserved to be cheated on because she was too clingy. He says Val is “asking for grief” because she’s acting like she and Art are practically married when it’s obvious to anyone with a brain that Art isn’t that into her.
So I don’t like Randy. At all. Just for that, he’s making the list.
Odds Art is the bad guy: 25%
I still think he’s too obvious.
Odds Val is the bad guy: 60%
Odds Randy is the bad guy: 15%
Just because I hate him.
But it's definitely Val. Daniel is trying very hard to make Art look super suspicious but she's given Val a pretty strong motive.
It shouldn't be so obvious who the bad guy is already.
We skip to Saturday. Jessie goes to a rally about school funding that I don’t care about. She spends the entire time taking pictures of the crowd. Through her lens, she sees Art and Brenda talking again. It doesn’t look friendly at all. Brenda is all up in his face and Art looks enraged. She snaps several pics of them.
Afterwards, she and Randy go to the studio so she can print the photos. She shows them to him and he comments that he often sees Art enraged like that during a game but it “isn’t cool” to act like that off the field.
Thanks for that profound statement, Randy.
I still hate you.
Jessie adds most of the photos to a box at home but keeps out the ones of Randy and Brenda to show Val. Val is annoyed because Art canceled their date the next day because he has a paper to write. Val is well aware that Art doesn’t actually do any coursework or attend very many of his classes so this excuse is bullshit. Her mood just gets worse when Jessie tells her about Art cheating on her with Laurie. Jessie shows Val the photos and tells her about Art threatening her. Val accuses Jessie of trying to steal her boyfriend.
I love it when women support women.
Also, Daniel makes Val look completely irrational here which just strengthens my opinion that Val killed Laurie in order to hang onto Art.
We skip to the next day. Val isn’t speaking to Jessie. I wonder if Val also accused Brenda of being after Art and that’s what made Brenda move out. Jessie is tired of all the tension so she gathers up her books and heads for the library. Art is outside the library for some reason and he knocks the books out of her hands so he can grab her arm. He yells at her for telling Val about Laurie and says that she and Brenda better stop running their mouths.
An older woman approaches and pretends to need change for the vending machine. Art lets Jessie go and steps away. The woman asks Jessie in a whisper if she should call the police. Jessie says ‘no’ but asks the woman to walk inside with her. She’s sure Art won’t follow her in where there are a lot of witnesses.
Girl, he confronted you on the library steps where there were plenty of witnesses. Your logic makes no sense.
Jessie goes into the library. Nothing happens. Art leaves.
The next morning, Jessie leaves the apartment early to take some photos for one of her classes. She sees blood on the pavement and follows the trail to some bushes where she finds Brenda’s body. She starts screaming and someone in the apartment complex calls the cops. G shows up and……..
Wait.
Should I add G to the odds? He’s obsessed with football. Maybe he’s killing the girls who are threatening the star of the team? I mean, I still think it's obviously Val but I can't ignore that a crazed fan might be a good suspect as well.
Odds Art is the bad guy: 5%
Odds Randy is the bad guy: 5% (I still just have him on here because I hate him.)
Odds Val is the bad guy: 80%
Odds G is the bad guy: 10%
Watch it be Sweeny.
G reveals that Brenda was stabbed to death. The murder weapon is found in the same bushes as the body and is described as a “stainless-steel knife with a metal handle”. I don’t know if it’s the hunting knife Art left with Val or not. Jessie tells G about Art fighting with Brenda. He dismisses her and treats her like she’s crazy which is just so very nice. She says she has proof and he goes up to her apartment with her so she can get the photos. I bet you can’t guess what happens next.
Did you guess?
Yep. The photos are missing.
From an apartment that Val also lives in. Gee, I wonder what could have happened to them?
G basically tells Jessie that she’s exaggerating her role in both deaths in order to feel like the main character. I guess he didn’t get the memo that she IS the main character of this book. Daniel should have briefed him better. He also theorizes that Jessie is accusing Art out of jealousy because he isn’t paying her any attention. I guess he thinks his favorite player is just irresistible and all the ladies want him.
We skip to the next day. Jessie goes to work and tells Sweeny about finding the body. He chastises her for not taking pictures. She says it felt wrong but he says she might have captured something vital that she didn’t even notice at the time. This makes her think about the crime scene and she gets the nagging feeling that there was something beside Brenda that reminded her of Art.
Jessie starts following Art around. It’s dumb. He notices and it pisses him off. He threatens her. It doesn’t stop her. She notices him flirting with a random girl and snaps a pic. He gets into his car with the girl and drives off. Val also saw it happen but she immediately starts denying he’s cheating on her, saying he loves her. Jessie tries to talk to her but Val accuses her again of trying to steal Art.
Later Jessie has a date with Randy and he also accuses her of trying to steal Art because he’s heard she’s been following him around.
God this book is tedious.
Jessie explains that she’s been following Art because she thinks he’s a murderer and she hopes to find some kind of evidence. Randy thinks she’s ridiculous.
Of course she's ridiculous. It's CLEARLY Val.
When Jessie and Randy get back to the apartment, they hear a crash and a scream from inside. They go in and find Val on the floor and a drunken, angry Art standing over her with his hand raised like he hit her. Randy pulls him away and encourages Val to call the cops and press charges. She refuses, saying it was all a misunderstanding and she just fell. Jessie presses her about Art hitting her and Val admits that he didn’t but she thought he was going to and she fell trying to dodge him. Randy takes Art home. Val gets upset with Jessie for badmouthing Art.
We skip to the next day. Jessie starts obsessing over Brenda’s crime scene and what she saw there that she can’t remember. She heads to the police station to ask G if she can see the crime scene photos. For some reason he allows this. Whatever she’s thinking of isn’t in any of the pictures but G admits that the paramedics disturbed the scene quite a bit when they pulled Brenda out of the bushes to see if they could revive her. She tells him she remembers the object being small and related to Art somehow but she has no idea what it was. He basically just pats her on the head, calls her crazy a few more times and sends her on her way.
Jessie goes to work. Art shows up while Sweeny is at lunch and demands to know why she’s been following him around. She says she was afraid he was going to hurt Val – like he did the night before. He gets all sheepish and says he’s there to apologize because Val asked him too. He blames the beer. She tells him it’s no excuse. He gets pissed and leaves. I’m not sure what the point of any of that was.
Jessie goes home and tries to talk to Val about Art. Val isn’t having any of Jessie’s warnings. She hints that she thinks Art might ask her to marry him on Valentine’s Day. Jessie knows this isn’t true because Randy told her that Art isn’t looking for anything serious. She decides Val is delulu.
Same.
Also definitely homicidal.
Days pass. Jessie is annoyed because everyone seems to have forgotten about Laurie and Brenda. No one is talking about them anymore and even the newspapers have stopped running stories about them.
Val loses an earring that Art gave her. I’m guessing this will be important later so I’m mentioning it. It’s probably the thing Jessie saw by Brenda’s body.
Jessie reminds us that she’s missing a bunch of photos and negatives. She’s sure Art took them.
And Jessie’s an idiot.
Jessie starts getting hang-up calls and feels like she’s being watched. She finds a note in her textbook that says “Minding other people’s business is a dangerous hobby.”
Truth.
One day Art and Val track Jessie down at the library to tell her that Sweeny called the apartment. He needs Jessie to open the studio that night for some buyers because he has another obligation. Jessie heads right over there and ends up stuck until 11:00pm. As she’s biking home, a car tries to run her over. She’s able to dodge it, but the car runs over her back wheel. She manages to get a photo of it as it’s racing away.
Jessie ends up having to push the bike home and it’s super hard due to her legs being all scraped up and bleeding. When she gets to the apartment, Val is lying on the couch watching TV. She notices Jessie’s ripped jeans and asks what happened. Jessie says a car got to close to her and she fell off her bike. Val offers to fix her some tea because “pushing that bike must have been grim”.
Jessie never told her she had to push the bike home or that the bike was damaged. All she said was she fell off it. Jessie doesn’t clock this but she should have.
There's no doubt now. It's 100% Val.
The next day, Jessie goes to the studio to develop the photo she took of the car. It’s not the best shot but she got the license plate and the make/model. She takes the photo to the police station and ends up making a report with G. He runs the plate and finds out the car was reported stolen. Jessie suggests Art as a suspect and G calls it a “vendetta”.
Later Jessie calls Randy to ask if he’ll take her bike to a repair shop. He says he’s about to go to the weight room to workout with Art. Jessie decides this will be the perfect time to break into Art’s apartment to look for evidence since she knows where he hides the spare key. She brings her camera and some gloves.
Taking pictures of yourself committing a crime seems really dumb, Jessie.
Jessie searches the apartment and all she finds are some photos of Art and Laurie kissing and holding hands. She takes pictures of them. Art and Randy come back early because Art hurt his knee. Jessie manages to escape out a bathroom window without being caught. She breaks the toilet tank in the process though.
A day or so later she’s at work when Art stops by asking if she knows where Val is.
Probably planning another murder.
Art says he found something that Val had better be able to explain. Then he asks Jessie if she knows anything about the break in. He advances on her threateningly and she panics and throws some kind of developing chemical in his eyes. She runs off, leaving him alone in the studio.
Jessie ends up at a convenience store and calls Randy to pick her up. When he does, she immediately confesses to the break in for some reason. Randy drives her back to the studio and Art is gone. So are all the photos Jessie has been taking as evidence.
Randy takes her home and sleeps on the couch in case Art comes looking for her. Val never comes home.
The next day the go somewhere and when they come back, Jessie finds a note on the fridge from Val. “Jessie – you might have been right. Art called yesterday and I’m frightened. I have to think things out. See you later, Val.”
Val doesn’t come home until later that night. She says Art broke up with her the day before after they had a huge fight about Art’s knee. Val was trying to get him to see the trainer but Art was afraid he’d be told he couldn’t play and that would ruin his chances of going pro. She said he was going to ruin his career by not getting it fixed and he accused her of only being with him for the money he might make if he gets a contract.
Which is probably true. It's not like there's any reason to be with him other than that. He's awful.
Art arrives in the middle of this story and he’s already pissed off. He asks Val if she’s going to tell them how she lied and set people up. She screams at him to shut up. He screams that she’s not getting away with it and then tries to choke her out. Randy pulls him off. Art tries to get at Val again and Randy has to knock him the fuck out. He ends up breaking a finger on Art’s jaw. Randy goes out to see if he can find Art’s car so they can take him to the ER.
Val and Jessie are standing over Art’s unconscious body and Val points out that it’s Valentine’s Day. Jessie starts to say something about the ring Val thought she was going to get and that finally triggers her memory of what she saw beside Brenda’s body. I was right. It WAS Val’s missing earring. Jessie mentions it and Val says “so that’s where I lost it”.
I fucking knew it.
Val was, indeed, a Justin.
But why the hell didn't the earring remind her of Val when she saw it? I know Art gave Val the earrings but he didn't wear them. Why would it scream 'Art' to her instead of 'Val'?
Jessie's an idiot.
Val reveals that she’s holding Art’s hunting knife in her hand. She warns Jessie not to say anything to Randy or they’ll both die. Randy comes back and hoists Art up. Jessie and Val follow with Val’s knife to Jessie’s back. Randy puts Art in the front seat of the Mustang and then goes back inside to get some ice for his hand. Val forces Jessie into the car.
Why would Randy just leave them with someone he believes is a murdered.
Seriously. Randy sucks.
Val gets in the back seat and forces Jessie to drive. It starts to rain. Jessie asks Val for the bad guy monologue we’re owed. Val says Laurie found out about the steroids when she was dating Art and tried to use that to blackmail him into breaking up with Val. Val killed her to protect Art’s secret (and to keep him). Then she killed Brenda because Brenda was figuring things out.
Val directs Jessie up a mountain and then has her stop alongside the road. Jessie knows Val is going to kill them and then send the car over the mountain. She tries to get away. Val stabs her. Jessie makes it out of the car with Val right behind her. Art also gets out of the car. They all circle each other for awhile. Art finally tries to tackle Val just as Randy pulls up behind them. Randy grabs Art, still thinking he’s the bad guy. Val jumps back into the Mustang. She tries to speed away but ends up going over the side of the mountain.
They decide she's dead without bothering to check. Ask Laurie Strode if that's a good idea. Idiots.
Jessie fills Randy in and then they get Art into Randy’s car and they head for the hospital. The book just ends there.
Not gonna lie, this one was SUPER boring. And way too predictable. Val was definitely a Justin. I kept hoping it might be G but it was pretty obvious it wasn’t going to be.
PS. In case you're wondering, Art was the one making all the hang-up calls. He thought it would warn Jessie to stop investigating. It doesn't make much sense but whatever.
PPS. I still hate Randy.
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