Online articles about the case and interview transcripts are provided throughout, and Pip’s capstone logs offer insights into her thought processes as new evidence and suspects arise. Pip’s sleuthing is both impressive and accessible. But someone is watching, and Pip may be in more danger than she realizes. With his help, Pip digs deeper, unveiling unsavory facts about Andie and the real reason Sal’s friends couldn’t provide him with an alibi. Unable to ignore the gaps in the case, Pip sets out to prove Sal’s innocence, beginning with interviewing his younger brother, Ravi. Andie’s body was never recovered, and Sal was assumed by most to be guilty of abduction and murder. The original investigation concluded with most of the evidence pointing to Sal, who was found dead in the woods, apparently by suicide. For her senior capstone project, Pip researches the disappearance of former Fairview High student Andie, last seen on April 18, 2014, by her younger sister, Becca. Pip has known and liked Sal since childhood he’d supported her when she was being bullied in middle school. The blend of predictable prep school elements with unpredictable suspense makes this a fizzy read for fans of the genre.Įveryone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago-except Pippa Fitz-Amobi. The characters and their relationships are nuanced, especially bisexual Kay, who has intimate encounters with males and females. Yet this intertwined mystery that has readers figuring out Jessica’s murderer and Kay’s secrets (and their possible connections) is more than these clichés. The debut novel has all the tropes one would expect from a prep school mystery: plenty of backstabbing, predominantly white young socialites (except for Brie with “smooth brown skin”), and frequent parties with alcohol and sex. There, Kay receives instructions to take down all her friends-this one for doping, that one for sleeping with a professor-or her own secrets will be revealed. As she, her friends, and other acquaintances begin answering questions for the police, the teen also receives an email from Jessica’s account that takes her to a revenge website. But it’s not the first time Kay has seen a dead body-and someone knows it. When Kay Donovan and her popular senior classmates uphold the tradition of skinny dipping in the lake after the Halloween dance, they’re surprised to find the dead body of Jessica Lane, a fellow student.

For others, attending the elite prep school means getting killed. For some girls, it’s a killer getting into Bates Academy.

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