She Treads Softly: Pretty Dead Things

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Pretty Dead Things

Pretty Dead Things Book Cover

Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox
7/7/26; 336 pages
St. Martin's Press

Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox is a highly recommended mean-girls murder mystery. Set in Texas amidst the beauty pageant scene, secrets abound and the competition is taken seriously.

Back in 2000 for the 25th annual Lone Star Pageant in Anhalt, Texas, one of the twin daughters, Ingrid (Iggy) or Isabelle (Izzy), of Barbara Whitmore, was naturally expected to win. When Izzy disappeared before the competition, upstart Kennedy Claire won and Iggy left town.

Now in 2025, the competition is about to start again. This year Kennedy Claire Preston’s daughter, Sarah Lynne, is expected to win. However, this year there are long standing secrets and grudges that are also joining the competition. When Sarah Lynn convinces her friends Hannah and Olivia to compete, ruthless Kennedy Claire immediately sizes up her daughter's competition. Hannah is the daughter of Melanie, who still has trauma from her treatment 25 years earlier. Catherine's (Cat) daughter is Olivia. Olivia represents real competition against Sarah Lynne, while Cat is a recovering addict. What shocks the Anhalt pageant world is that Iggy returns to town. Her mother is ill and Melanie, a nurse, is helping care for her. Catherine, Melanie, and Iggy join Kennedy Claire to assist with the pageant.

This even-paced novel unfolds through multiple points-of-view. Additionally, there are a whole lot of characters to keep track of, so an even-paced start will give you a chance to sort them all out. I haven't even mentioned several other characters. All of the characters are portrayed as unique individuals which will help you distinguish between them. It also serves to identify multiple suspects for present deeds and the past disappearance of Izzy. You may have to set a bit of disbelief aside, but the plot is worth it.

The whole premise of the plot, a long standing beauty pageant, presupposes nefarious deeds will take place. Iggy's return to the area may ignite an already tense situation. The setting, a pageant in the same small town, begs for self-importance, ambitions, resentments, grudges, secrets, and a fierce competition to erupt. When storm brings down the state’s power grid and everyone is trapped under one roof, the plot turns into a locked-room thriller during an already tense situation. This increases the tension and the likelihood that something deadly will happen.

Pretty Dead Things is a great choice for everyone who enjoys a small town, mean-girl mysteries and a plot following toxic pageant culture. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.