The back-to-school blowout filled with drinks and drugs isn't Frankie's scene, but she would do anything for her childhood best friend, Jessa, whose recent ugly duckling transformation has her hanging with a new crowd and vying for pretty boy Malcolm – the popular senior throwing the all-out rager on his father's deserted development property.

Martin hasn't heard from his old friends since his father lost everything and moved them across town. Until the party invitation. Between working double-shifts and avoiding his father's sad-guilty routine, Martin decides to blow off some steam. But the party house is a monument to the bad real estate deal that left half the town in financial ruin – and the heart of all that has gone wrong for him and his family.

Cara and her crew of lost girls have been squatting in a model home on the property, stealing for their survival. The party is the perfect mark – privileged kids, abundant alcohol, and dark corners. The girls score big with their haul, but the celebration is short-lived when they learn their temporary home is at risk of discovery. They could be split up and forced back onto the unsafe streets.

In the wake of a brutal brawl, the guests find a lifeless body—and this murder is only the first. Escalating violence drives Frankie, Martin, and Cara to forge new bonds, and together unmask a killer. Narrated from multiple perspectives, Heartbreak Homes is about what compels us to kill – and the true face of justice. (From Nimbus)

Jo Treggiari was born in London, England, and raised in Canada. She is the author of the YA novels Blood Will Out, Ashes, Ashes and The Grey Sisters, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award.