Christopher Pike The Star Group and Execution of Innocence

In The Star Group, Daniel has always liked Gale, and he finally asks her out just before graduation. Gale also likes Daniel, and the two get along well.  Later, Daniel uses a string with a magnet tied to the end to contact a spiritual being known as Mentor.  Mentor tells Daniel to get his friends together and meet in a certain location so that they can achieve their greater purpose.

Sounds like a good idea to obey a strange spirit voice!  Of course, the plan does not go well at all, and people end up dying.

This book reminds me somewhat of Christopher Pike's Final Friends trilogy.

There are some things that come out towards the end of the book that are absolutely hilarious.

I enjoyed this book.

In Execution of Innocence, Mary and her boyfriend, Charlie, get into a fight because Mary went to a dance with another boy, Dick.  When Dick gets killed, both Mary and Charlie are suspects.  The only problem is that Charlie is missing.  The police question Mary and her friend, Hannah, and can tell that the girls are holding something back.

This book is set up the same way as Gimme a Kiss with the police interrogation alternating with past events leading up to the murder.  My knowledge of Gimme a Kiss also helped me very quickly guess the identity of the culprit.

This book has nothing supernatural in it and is like an early Pike book.

I enjoyed this book.

Interestingly, Pike does not like either of these books.  He wrote in a comment on Facebook, "With Star Group I could have done so much more with the idea if I'd had time.  It was my fault I did not start on the book until a month before the due date.  With Execution of Innocence, I feel I could have developed it more, been more clever.   A week after it was put into galleys I remember I came up with an idea that could have made it so much better. But that idea is long gone. Now, I am onto other things as they say..."

Certainly neither book is perfect and neither is Pike's best work, but I did enjoy both of them.  When I read Christopher Pike books, I want to enjoy a fun, crazy horror story. Both of these books deliver just that.