reading & read | cmr

The Lake of Dead Languages, Carol Goodman

You really do have to hand it to that Alice and her book recommendations. I read this on the fly while up in Pennsylvania with Dave, the same weekend I finished up Barbara Vine's book. This book, though... now this knows how to blow you out of the water.

First things first, as the cover will tell you, this has the same mystery, the same aura about it that The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, did (which I reviewed back in July, 2004, I think). This time, the students are Latin, they are in high school, and something isn't quite right. After the not-quite-right turns deadly, one girl returns to her high school only now as a teacher and realized it's all happening again.

Excellent characters, excellent mystery, excellent way to draw it out and wait so you can hold your breath without annoyance, waiting to see what will happen next.

This is one of those books that made me want to write.

posted by christen roberts @ 6:20 PM