Review: The Twisted Thread

Title: The Twisted Thread
Author: Charlotte Bacon
Publisher: Voice
Release Date: June 14, 2011
Source: NetGalley
My Rating: 3/5

From Goodreads:  When beautiful but aloof Claire Harkness is found dead in her dorm room one spring morning, prestigious Armitage Academy is shaken to its core. Everyone connected to school, and to Claire, finds their lives upended, from the local police detective who has a personal history with the academy, to the various faculty and staff whose lives are immersed in the daily rituals associated with it.


Everyone wants to know how Claire died, at whose hands, and more importantly, where the baby that she recently gave birth to is a baby that almost no one, except her small innermost circle, knew she was carrying.

At the center of the investigation is Madeline Christopher, an intern in the English department who is forced to examine the nature of the relationship between the school s students and the adults meant to guide them. As the case unravels, the dark intricacies of adolescent privilege at a powerful institution are exposed, and both teachers and students emerge as suspects as the novel rushes to its thrilling conclusion.

With The Twisted Thread, Charlotte Bacon has crafted a gripping and suspenseful story in the tradition of Donna Tartt s The Secret History, one that pulls back the curtain on the lives of the young and privileged.

My Thoughts:  I had been eager to read this book based on the Goodreads summary, but it took me quite awhile to get through this.  The story kept me interested, and the mystery kept me intrigued.  My biggest complaint about the book is that I felt there were too many characters.  I had trouble keeping up with them all.  At one point, I considered making a list of all of the characters to use for quick reference.  For me, that's just too much work to read a book.  At the end of the story, I could understand how all of the characters tied together, but I still felt like it was just too much.  On a more positive note, I found myself feeling like the characters in the story.  I wanted to know how Claire died, who had done it, and why.  I kept guessing who the killer was throughout the book and was pleased to find at the end that one of my first guesses was right.