Read time: 4 minutes
📱📖 Read on Kindle
📃 352 pages
⏱ 5 hours
🏷️ Publisher: Berkley | Published June 9, 2026.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
Book Blurb:
It’s been forty years since the women of Sigma Delta Tau were last together, and some of those old wounds never quite closed. When private investigator Aubrey Merritt joins her former sorority sisters for a reunion in New Mexico, she’s expecting nostalgia, not a murder. But when one of the group turns up dead, the World’s Greatest Detective finds herself tangled in four decades of secrets, grudges, and grievances she thought time had buried. With her personal assistant Olivia Blunt by her side, Merritt must cut through the emotional fog of old friendships to find a killer hiding in plain sight.
Let’s talk … murder!!!
Here’s the thing about reunion stories: they live or die by whether you actually believe these people have history. Liza Tully absolutely nails it. The sorority backstory in The Forty-Year Grudge doesn’t feel like a plot device, it feels like sediment. Forty years of small betrayals, unspoken resentments, and friendships that calcified into obligation. By the time the murder happens, you’ve already got a shortlist of suspects just from the passive-aggressive dinner conversation. That’s good writing.
And then there’s Merritt and Blunt, doing their thing. If you read the first book, you know the dynamic: Merritt is your armchair genius, sharp and frustratingly still, while Blunt is out here hustling for clues like she’s submitting extra credit. What I love is that Tully gives Blunt her moments this time around. She earns a few of those clues herself, and it genuinely matters to the resolution. Watching Blunt grow into her detective instincts while Merritt runs her quiet, brilliant magic is the real pleasure of this series. The emotional stakes are higher here too, Merritt is protecting a friend, and she KNOWS she’s not objective, which adds a wonderful layer of tension to every deduction she makes.
The mystery itself is solid: twisty enough to keep you guessing, though not impossible to piece together if you’re paying attention. And then there’s the atmosphere of old friendships, buried grudges, and that delicious sense that no one here is entirely innocent. Liza Tully balances humor and tension well, keeping things light without losing the emotional undercurrent. Cozy, yes, but with just enough bite.
Would I recommend it?
The sorority grudge plot is juicy without being soapy, the Merritt & Blunt dynamic keeps getting better, and the ending ties it all up with a satisfying snap. It’s a warm, engaging follow-up that builds on what worked in the first book while giving us a slightly deeper emotional hook.
Book Recommendations:
- The Appeal by Janice Hallett — An epistolary mystery set inside an amateur theatre group dripping with old grudges and long memories; perfect for readers who loved the sorority dynamics here.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik — Not a cozy, but if the “brilliant, slightly detached genius woman” archetype is your thing, Novik delivers it with flair.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz — A meta detective duo with a brilliantly odd dynamic that scratches exactly the same Merritt-and-Blunt itch in a darker key.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Class Reunions Are Murder by Libby Klein — A cozy mystery that leans fully into the reunion-as-pressure-cooker premise; ideal if the sorority setting was your favourite part.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra — atmospheric, character-rich sleuthing.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Litsy
Reunions, secrets, and sleuthing: what’s your take?
Are you team brilliant-but-distant detective or loyal, boots-on-the-ground sidekick?
And do you love a reunion setting when it comes with a body count?
Book Links:
Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider:
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover
Follow Lisa Tully for latest on Merritt and Blunt series
Check out more books from Berkley
Discover more from Views She Writes
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
