“Donna Tartt is just a beautiful writer. Her descriptions of events and tight dialogue are wonderful, and her story is engaging and unlike anything I’ve ever read. This is a book that rewards a reread so you can pick up on all the foreshadowing and side comments that point you right to the truth before you even know it. The psychological twists and turns of the novel are well-executed and her main character is acutely self-aware and provides an engaging analysis of what he is experiencing in retrospect. The world she builds is so glamorous and exciting, she makes me want to move to the Vermont countryside and hide away in a library forever.” – Sarah P., Circulation
A “why-done-it” mystery that starts with a murder and then catches you up to the motive. The story follows Richard Paper who arrives in New England to study the Classics at Hampden College. He is quickly reduced by an elite group of five students, Greek scholars, who are worldly, self-assured, and highly unapproachable, at least at first. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learned a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient ritual was brought to brutal life… and led to a brutal death. And that is just the beginning.