The setting is Briarwood College, a small, elite college in upstate New York. Dean of Liberal Arts, Nell Portman, had also been a student there. It's been 25 years since the death of Hugo Moss, one of the school's most celebrated Professors and a literary fellow. He died trying to find a student who had wandered off into one of the local caves. The student also perished but her body was never recovered. While Nell works on a memorial event to honor the two who died, school President Hotchkiss seizes the opportunity to use the anniversary of the deaths as a fundraiser. Just before the event, a student discovers human bones in the cave, which magnifies the horror of the deaths. Nell, who had been a scholarship student, was not only at Briarwood when the deaths took place, she was a student of Moss, along with her circle of friends. When alumni and donors arrive for the event, the campus is hit by a severe snowstorm. The only people who stay are the former students of Moss and it becomes clear that Nell and her friends have been hiding a deep, dark secret for all these years. And one of them could be a killer.
Told in the present and past, author Carol Goodman has created a highly suspenseful story that I fully enjoyed. The Bones of the Story kept me guessing and was filled with some surprising twists. It's a locked-room mystery that has an Agatha Christie vibe with a great atmosphere within the campus including those creepy caves! There's lots of literary references to jog your memory from college days in this well-done dark academia book. Put this one on your syllabus.
Rated 4.25 out of 5 stars.
Mystery | Thriller.
Publication Date: July 11, 2023.
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