Starred review from September 23, 2019
Ash Carlisle, the heroine of this high-tension thriller from bestseller Ellison (Tear Me Apart), leaves the U.K. after the death of her parents to attend the Goode School, an exclusive girls’ boarding school in Marchburg, Va. Ash knows that graduating from Goode will be her ticket to an Ivy League college. But as she settles in as a sophomore, she’s unprepared for the meanness of the other girls and the hazing she faces when tapped for one of Goode’s secret societies. When a student is found dead, an apparent suicide, the police question Ash and others who knew the victim. The dean, who worries about the potential bad publicity for the school, and the police think that Ash may be hiding something. As the body count rises, Ash’s involvement with the deceased seems too much of a coincidence to be ignored. Alternating points of view raise the suspense, blurring the lines between what’s true and false. No one among the cast of calculating characters is above suspicion. Ellison keeps readers guessing throughout. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group.