OMG!!! Could it really be eight years ago that we discovered E. Lockhart's We Were Liars which looked beneath the rich and powerful Sinclair family's facade to uncover their deep, dark secrets? I read that book on one of those rare days when I felt sick enough to stay in bed. Precious Joey cat cuddled up with me. He was such a loving, faithful companion all the years we were together!
Anyway I discovered another chiller by the same author. Genuine Fraud is every bit as dark and twisty as its older literary sibling.
"Hey, Jule. By the time you read this, I'll have taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Then I'll have hailed a taxi to the Westminster Bridge.
I'll have stones in my pockets. Lots of stones. I've been collecting them all week. And I will be drowned. The river will have me and I will feel some relief."
Jule, Lockhart's narrator, discovers this note in the bread box of the London flat she's sharing with her best friend, Imogen. Evidence is consistent with a suicide. Imogen's clothes and suitcases are still in the flat. Beyond her laptop, driver's license, and passport, nothing other than their owner is missing. Her cell phone only has records of calls and emails from family and close friends. Even though they're not sure when/if they'll locate her body, the police feel it's an open and shut case.
Forrest, Imogen's boyfriend, is sure she wouldn't have killed herself. What if a kidnapper or killer had forced her to write the note before removing her from her residence? He's planning to stick around until the truth comes out.
Imogen's parents, back in the States, can't come handle her affairs. Her father is terminally ill. Her mother is his caretaker. Jule is in charge of tying up all the loose ends...
...At least this is how it appears. But Lockhart had created a treacherous, convoluted world in We Were Liars. You can safely assume that in Genuine Fraud also much is not like it seems on the surface.
Can you deduce what's going on by the end of the book? If so, you're a much better sleuth than me.
"Beneath the silvery moonlight, our skin gleams like bones. Skinny-dipping in the frigid waters of North Lake after the Halloween Dance is a Bates Academy tradition, though not many students have the guts to honor it."
It looks like this year the tradition won't be honored at all. Kay, narrator of Dana Mele's People Like Us, is about to when she hears her best friend, Brie, scream. There's the body of a girl, Jessica, in an elaborate white gown floating on the water. Pretty soon the campus of the ritzy private school is swarming with police asking questions and the headmistress, Dr. Klein, is feverishly engaged in damage control.
Although Jessica's death is at first considered a suicide, the police find evidence of foul play. Pretty soon they're looking for suspects. Kay is pretty high on the list. She had both motive and opportunity. She had some unaccounted for moments that fateful evening. And her exboyfriend, Spencer, had cheated with the deceased.
Kay gets an email from dead Jessica who wants revenge on the still living. She'll receive instructions for each task which involves getting a peer expelled from the school. If she fails to complete any one in a timely enough fashion the police, her parents, and the whole school will get some very damaging information about a crime in her past.
So who killed Jessica? Might they seek another victim? Will Kay manage to get out of her bizarre assignment before the whole school turns against her?
If you like your chillers served up with lots of twists and turns you'll find People Like Us to be totally delicious.
On a purrrsonal note, we had a Quil event which was free fruit smoothies. Of course I ran around driving traffic to the Commuter Lounge. Tomorrow we'll have my discussion of book banning. I hope we'll get people. It's more of an engagement commitment than free food. At least we're getting great publicity. We've had our poster appear twice in the weekly diversity newsletter. And the Maine Campus, the UMaine online paper is running a story I wrote on book banning in Maine with a mention about the event. At this point all I can do is get a good rest and do my best tomorrow.
And five days til the Drag Show!!! (Jules)
Nothing like a snuggling cat to induce good quality sleep. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to the people who will hopefully attend tomorrow.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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