Sixteen year old Colette Iselin is on a class trip to Paris planning on having the time of her life and maybe looking into her family history. Colette is a typical girl trying to impress her rich spoiled friends, Hannah and Pilar, and wade through her life's new circumstances. Thankfully she is not an airhead or first person would not have been fun. From the beginning of the trip, Colette feels the pull of belonging. That feeling intensifies when her class goes to Versailles and she sees the flower on her ancestor's medallion everywhere. Now, she thinks she is seeing the ghost of Marie Antoinette.

Colette is on edge with brutal murders in the news and her mysterious experiences at Versailles. As things start to get intense Colette meets the handsome golden god Armand Janvier outside the club she and her friends snuck out to see. Armand says they are the same and he makes Colette swoon. On the other hand there is the new tour guide, Jules Martin, who is young and all too American looking. I find it unsettling to not know who the love interest is by the end of the first few chapters of a book, if there even is one.

Colette together with her local boy of choice set out to solve the mystery of the murders, the ghost, and her past.

MARIE ANTOINETTE, SERIAL KILLER by Katie Alender is a young adult mystery novel set in modern day Paris written in first person. The premise of MARIE ANTOINETTE, SERIAL KILLER is intriguing. The fact that Marie Antoinette could be seeking revenge on the progeny of those who had her guillotined is something I haven't seen before. Interlaced with Colette's story there are excerpts of the last moments of the victims' lives, some of the endings gave me chills. The way Alender leads the reader through Colette's adventure makes me wish I had gone on a class trip to Paris when I had the chance. This is Colette's coming of age story and it's full of spice.

While I don't normally read first person or young adult I loved Katie Alender's style. Alender kept me on edge and constantly guessing throughout all of MARIE ANTOINETTE, SERIAL KILLER.

Book Summary

Heads will roll!

Paris, France: a city of fashion, chocolate croissants, and cute boys. Colette Iselin is thrilled be there for the first time, on her spring break class trip.

But a series of gruesome murders are taking place around the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours the sights, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks like Marie Antoinette.

Colette knows her status-obsessed friends won't believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they discover that the murder victims are all descendants of people who ultimately brought about Marie Antoinette's beheading. The queen's ghost has been awakened, and now she's wreaking her bloodthirsty revenge.

And Colette may just be one of those descendants . . . which means she might not make it out of this trip alive.

Acclaimed author Katie Alender brings heart-stopping suspense to this story of betrayal, glamour, mystery, history--and one killer queen.