(48) Murder at Prep School

Title: The Twisted Thread by Charlotte Bacon
Publisher: Voice
384 Pages
Genre: Mystery/thriller

This title is due to be release 6/14/11.  I received an advanced electronic copy through netgalley.com

Synopsis: When beautiful but aloof Claire Harkness is found dead in her dorm room one spring morning, prestigious Armitage Academy is shaken to its core. Everyone connected to school, and to Claire, finds their lives upended, from the local police detective who has a personal history with the academy, to the various faculty and staff whose lives are immersed in the daily rituals associated with it. Everyone wants to know how Claire died, at whose hands, and more importantly, where the baby that she recently gave birth to is--a baby that almost no one, except her small innermost circle, knew she was carrying.

At the center of the investigation is Madeline Christopher, an intern in the English department who is forced to examine the nature of the relationship between the school's students and the adults meant to guide them.

Review: Armitage Academy is a place of privilege and money.  No matter what happens there it seems that the kids only ever get a slap on the wrist.  It is a private world where few outsiders ever venture.  The towns people seem to harbor resentment of the school and the people who go there.  When Claire is found dead in her room at Armitage this world of privilege and secrets gets turned upside down.

Matt is a police officer who left his job in Philadelphia to come back to his home town.  When they are notified of the murder at Armitage he is the one who gets the case.  He is the most qualified to handle this type of case and he was once a student there so he has some knowledge of the inner workings of the school.

Underneath its glossy exterior Armitage hides, secret societies, kids who raise themselves because their parents are too busy, and children who were raised with so much money and privilege they think the rules don't apply to them.

Bacon takes the reader inside this world and uncovers it slowly a layer at a time.  Madeline, the teacher intern guides you through the maze of politics, and secrets and as she uncovers the mystery of what happened to Clair so does the reader.  The illusion that is Armitage slowly crumbles to reveal a glass house where the wrong move could bring the whole thing tumbling down.  Well done.