In My Dreams I Hold A Knife

Adult chiller 

     "'For years, I've traced leads, putting the pieces together, uncovering what you've hidden.  Do you want to know what I discovered?'

     No, no, no.

     'Jack didn't kill Heather.  But someone in this room did.  One of you is a monster, hiding behind a mask.'"

     Ah, college reunions.  Time to get together with classmates at the old Alma Mater.  See how friends and acquaintances are making out.  What everyone is doing for work and play.  Who's married (and divorced) whom.  Who put on or took off weight or tried plastic surgery...

     ...or, if you're in the ensemble cast of Ashley Winstead's In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, which of you committed the brutal murder of one of your group.  Jessica, the primary narrator, Caro, Heather, Coop, Mint, Frankie, and Jack had met at the beginning of their first year and became a set,  bonding over the theft and transformation of the parade float created by the dorm that destroyed their float.  It was an act that made them instantly legendary on the Duquette University campus.  Their set was brutally broken up that February when golden girl Heather's bloodied body--stabbed seventeen times--was discovered in her dorm room.  Jack was accused of the crime.  But there wasn't enough evidence to indict him.

     Now five of the group are back on campus for their tenth class reunion:  Jessica who never felt successful in her student days and has returned to stun everyone with her achievements; Coop who spoke his mind and sold drugs on the side; Mint who was the incredibly handsome big man on campus and their to a family business; Frankie who played football under great parental pressure to make the NFL; and Caro for whom college represented the long awaited release from her fundamentalist parents' many rules.  Mean girl, Courtney, nemesis of at least one in the group, is there with husband Mint.

     Of course Heather can't be there.  But she's well represented by little brother Eric.  Obsessed with discovering her killer (after even their parents had given up and moved on), he's dug up lots of dirt on her former friends.  Now he hopes to wield it all to set the stage for the great reveal.

     Alternating between the reunion now and the college days then, Winstead's novel is dark, twisty, and highly addictive.  See if you can deduce the killer's identity...

     ...unless you're a college dean, president, or chancellor for whom the scenarios might be too nightmarish.

On a purrrsonal note, we had a social event in the commuter lounge today.  Quil whipped us all up lots of popcorn in a big old machine.  There were spices to put on it.  Of course my role was running all around the union to let people know what we had to offer.  (Jules)

She brought some home.  It smells yummy.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Quil for making good popcorn.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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