Nothing More to Tell

Nothing More to Tell is a young adult (YA) mystery/thriller novel published by American author Karen M. McManus in 2022. The teenage protagonist, Brynn, interns with a true-crime show and investigates the unsolved murder of her eighth-grade teacher, Mr. Larkin. Narrated in part by Brynn and in part by her classmate and love interest, Tripp, who found Mr. Larkin’s dead body, the novel explores the dangers of knowledge, the ethics of true-crime journalism, the burden of keeping secrets, and the importance of teamwork and friendship.

This guide refers to the hardcover trade edition published by Delacorte Press in 2022.

Content Warning: Nothing More to Tell and this guide reference murder, violence, and underage drinking.

Plot Summary

Nothing More to Tell is told in chapters with alternating narrators: the protagonist, high school senior Brynn, and her good friend and love interest, Tripp.

The novel opens with Brynn interviewing for and earning an internship with the true-crime show Motive, run by Carly Diaz. Brynn plans to investigate the unsolved murder of her eighth-grade English teacher, Mr. Larkin. She and her family moved away from Sturgis, Massachusetts, after Larkin’s murder, and only recently returned, where Brynn will finish high school while her family lives in their old house with her Uncle Nick. Brynn reflects on the mystery: Mr. Larkin’s body was found in the woods behind the school by three of Brynn’s classmates, Tripp, Shane, and Charlotte. Brynn used to be best friends with Tripp, but he publicly humiliated her and called her a stalker the day before Mr. Larkin’s death. The police decided a random drifter probably killed Mr. Larkin. Mr. Larkin was investigating a theft of school money before he was killed.

Tripp works in a bakery with a surrogate mother figure, Regina, who encourages Tripp to reach out to his birth mother, Lisa Marie, now that she is back in town. Tripp reflects on how Lisa Marie is not a mother at all. Tripp recalls when he was a child and the police interviewed him, Shane, and Charlotte. They claimed they were together in the woods working on a science project, were together the entire time, and didn’t see or hear anyone else, even though these were lies. Tripp, Shane, and Charlotte became inseparable afterward, and are still close friends in the present day.

Once Brynn and her younger sister Ellie join the school, Saint Ambrose, mid-year, Brynn and Tripp are put together on a memorial project for Mr. Larkin. Many people suspect Shane is the killer and a student named Colin shows a video in class where the host of a different true-crime show, Gunnar Fox, labels Shane a “killer kid.” Tripp gets in a fight with Colin and Brynn intervenes only to get punched in the face.

Brynn and Tripp visit Mr. Solomon, the school’s former groundskeeper, hoping for advice about the memorial garden. Solomon doesn’t answer the door, and the kids trespass into his backyard, where he pulls a gun on them and refuses to help with Mr. Larkin’s garden. Tripp and Brynn continue to struggle to be friends, even though both clearly have feelings for one another.

More details of the four-year-old crime are revealed by both Brynn’s and Tripp’s narration. Those details include that Shane’s fingerprints were the only ones on the murder weapon, the stolen school money was found in Charlotte’s locker but not in its original envelope, and Mr. Larkin went to teach at Saint Ambrose in order to be close to his brother. Later, the novel reveals that a student named Mason is Mr. Larkin’s younger brother. Tripp’s relationship with his mother Lisa Marie is also further detailed, including that her desire for fame leads her to try to convince Tripp to frame Shane for the murder. Lisa Marie is working with Gunnar Fox and his tabloid true-crime show.

Brynn and Tripp try asking the new groundskeeper for advice about the memorial garden, but he’s no help, so they return to Solomon’s again. When they get there, the door is wide open, and he won’t answer their calls. They go inside to check if he’s okay, and they find him dead. Tripp asks Brynn what she’s done and asks her to stop screaming, although she isn’t screaming. He gets evaluated at the hospital, where doctors say this is a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) response. Police notice that Mr. Solomon’s red tackle box is missing, which contained all his cash, and everyone thinks that Mr. Solomon might have been murdered during a robbery. Tripp finds out that Brynn is secretly working for Motive and investigating Mr. Larkin’s murder. He’s upset about this since Brynn’s deceit reminds him of Lisa Marie’s. Tripp skips school and drinks for a week, hiding in Charlotte’s guest house and avoiding Brynn’s attempts to contact him. Tripp eventually discovers that Lisa Marie is now trying to frame him for the murder.

Brynn’s boss Carly orders her to drop Mr. Larkin’s case because it’s causing too much trouble. However, Carly and her assistant Lindzi continue looking into the case on their own, and by reading their emails, Brynn discovers that Mr. Larkin changed his name from William (Billy) Robbins to William (Will) Larkin, and that he had a younger half-brother about her age, named Mikey and a stepmother named Lila. Brynn learns that Lila and Mikey fled Dexter, Mikey and Mr. Larkin’s father, because he was abusive.

Brynn finds Tripp and they talk. Brynn quits her internship to demonstrate her loyalty and Tripp confesses to her his memories of the past. He tells her that he found the stolen money in his dad’s house and brought it back to school to return it, but he got scared when he saw police and dropped it in the nearest locked, which randomly happened to be Charlotte’s. He explains that he had heard his dad and Mr. Larkin arguing about the money before the murder, which made Tripp believe that his dad was the killer. Tripp is truthful with Brynn about that day and says that he was separated from Shane and Charlotte, he removed a medallion he thought was his dad’s from the scene, and he convinced Shane and Charlotte to claim that they didn’t hear anything. Brynn relieves Tripp when she gives his father an alibi.

Brynn and Tripp now think Shane might have been the killer after all, and that he might be Mr. Larkin’s brother. They imagine Shane killed Mr. Larkin in order to keep him from revealing his whereabouts to their dad. Tripp finds the medallion he stole from the scene and realizes it didn’t belong to his dad, but rather to Mr. Larkin. Tripp and Brynn find the source of the medallion at a bar two hours away. They travel to the bar and speak with the owner Rose, who knows Mr. Larkin’s family and its drama, which she shares with the kids. Rose cautions the kids to not go looking for Dexter, who is dangerous. They go find him anyway, but do not learn anything valuable. Dexter successfully scares them, and they rush back to Sturgis. Back in town, Tripp’s dad tells Tripp that Lisa Marie actually stole the money, not him.

At the dance, the kids discover that Brynn’s friend Mason has been vandalizing posters of Mr. Larkin’s face. Mason confesses he is Mr. Larkin’s brother (Mikey), but he didn’t kill Mr. Larkin. Brynn learns that Charlotte believed that Shane was Mr. Larkin’s brother and so tried to frame Mr. Larkin for the school money theft by writing an anonymous letter to Brynn’s Uncle Nick, who worked for the school. As these details are revealed, Dexter shows up at the school and kidnaps Brynn’s sister Ellie as a way to try to get information about his “missing” family. Tripp and Brynn get into Nick’s truck and the three race after Dexter to try to save Ellie. They eventually get into a crash and are threatened at gunpoint by Dexter. Nick runs over Dexter with his truck, killing him.

At the end of the novel, Brynn believes Charlotte committed the murder and confronts Charlotte. Charlotte says this isn’t true, but Brynn offers readers her theory. Brynn then rejoins her internship in hopes of continuing to investigate Mr. Larkin’s case.