What a book. One of my absolute favourites and one I always recommend to my library customers.
Set in New England, this is the story of a group of elite scholars studying Classics. One of them, Richard Papen, finds he can’t enrol in Professor Julian Morrow’s class as enrolment is limited to five students. As Richard finds out more about this group, it becomes apparent that one of them, Edmund ‘Bunny’ Corcoran is blackmailing the group over an accidental death that occurred during a bacchanal. When Bunny threatens to expose this secret, the group decide to kill him.
The tale is narrated by Richard looking back on it many years later. A review describes this book as an ‘inverted detective story’ which is a perfect description. I have loved Donna Tartt’s other books, The Goldfinch in particular but this one has stayed in my mind nearly a decade after reading. Thoroughly recommended.