The Twisted Thread

Title: The Twisted Thread

Author: Charlotte Bacon

Pages: 384

Pub: June 14, 2011; Hyperion

Genre: Literary Fiction, Mystery

Etc: ARC from Netgalley

The Short of It

Beautiful wealthy girls can also die.

The Long of It

Claire is gorgeous.  One of those drop-dead blondes that seem to have it all: looks, smarts, MONEY.  And she attends one of the most prestigious private schools, Armtiage Academy; at least she did, until she was murdered that is.  The story opens with Claire dead, her newborn baby missing, and a faculty that didn’t even know she was preggers.  Enter, Matt, alumni who went the path of blue-collar worker, ie. town cop. Along with his partner Vernon, he attempts to intermingle with the closed mouth students and staff.  And speaking of staff, Madeline, the faculty member that least fits in with the status quo begins doing her own investigating.  She stumbles upon this secret society that’s nothing short of a bunch of rich girls bullying the underprivileged. Perhaps the girls in her dorm are upset for more reasons than just a death.

The Thoughts about It

I seriously thought this would be a book that I would run into the blogging world and shout from the top of webspaces READ THIS READ THIS NOW. 

Unfortunately. It. Is. Not.

This book humbled me.  I had to realize that just because a book might have all of the elements in a story that grabs me (in this case, a private academy, secret society, and a mysterious death), it doesn’t mean that I’m going to like it. 

So what were the flaws?  Okay, this is difficult for me to actually point the finger at.  I suppose part of the flaw was my expectations.  When I read the summary, my mind associated it wit Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman that I freakin’ adored.  So, already, it is competing in my head with a previous love.  This never comes out good. 

Also, you know how in elementary literature courses, they always talk about character-driven novels compared to plot-driven?  Well, I s’ppose this one was plot-driven, except I found it to be all over the place.  And the plot was really there just to carry the author’s agenda along…which was quite obvious “rich people get away with murder” (hahahaha, yes I realize what I just did there!).

At best, the book was trying to do what Tana French does in her novels – fall into this category of literary fiction meets mystery genre.  French made it work.  I didn’t really feel that here.

But you know, read it.  Prove me wrong.