Ally Carter. All Fall Down. New York: Scholastic, 2015. Print. An Embassy Row Novel.

All Fall Down is the first in what looks like will be another Young Adult series by Gallagher Girls author Ally Carter. This resembles the books in that first series because All Fall Down also involves international intrigue. Only, this time instead of straight espionage like the Gallagher Girls who attended a school for spies, this novel is set in an embassy.

Sixteen year old Grace (I do not believe her last name is given) witnessed her mother’s death three years ago. She saw the man whom she is certain killed her mother. However, everyone tells her that her mother died when a fire burned her antique shop down. Grace spent nearly a year under mental observation complete with drugs and cuffs because she insisted she saw her mother die at the hands of a man with a distinctive scar on his face.

When her Army major father gets sent into a battle zone, she is sent to the American Embassy in the nation of Adria (think Croatia or Slovenia) where her grandfather has been the American ambassador for twenty-five years. This is where her mother grew up and, because she was an Army brat, the closest place she has to a home. The problem is that her grandfather and others at the embassy treat her like damaged goods. “I am not crazy,” she says to virtually everyone she talks to.

When she discovers the man with the scar in Adria and overhears him talking about an assassination, she gets very scared. This story is a teen thriller and keeps the pages turning.

Grace is not necessarily a terribly likeable character, but we do understand her paranoia. She is still recovering from watching her mother die the way she did, especially when no one believes her. The story is told in the first person, so we do understand what Grace is thinking, and we certainly can sympathize with her situation.

She does make some friends on the Adria Embassy Row including Rosie, a tiny German ex-gymnast; Noah, son of a Brazilian soccer star and an Israeli diplomat; Megan, another girl who has lived at the American Embassy most of her life; and Alexi, a Russian friend of her older brother who is at West Point. Together they do have an array of skills and contacts, but Grace’s defensive personality tends to push everyone away.

The conflict is not just due to the mystery and the accusations about Grace, but also those teen interpersonal conflicts aggravated by serious trauma. Like Cold Fury, this is not teen chick lit. It is an easy thriller on a number of levels. Not only is there the sinister man with the scar, but catacombs from Roman times and strange happenings at the abandoned Iranian Embassy. There is a lot going on.

One warning, like Carter’s Gallagher Girls books, it is clear that Grace’s story is meant to continue. I am sure a part two is in the works. Indeed it is already labeled as An Embassy Row Novel. While one of the main mysteries is solved, there are a lot of dangling loose ends. I suspect that it may take a few volumes to tie them all up.