Nothing bad happens at Armitage Academy. It's too elite, too private and too secluded in rural Massachusetts. Its students are wealthy and accomplished, its faculty and staff beyond reproach.
So when beautiful queen bee Claire Harkness is found dead in her dorm room, the Armitage Academy community is stunned and confused. When it's discovered that Claire recently gave birth, and the baby--or the baby's body--is missing, those feelings change to fear, and the tragedy and mystery threaten to collapse the very foundations of affluence and class that the school was built upon.
When Armitage alumnus Detective Matt Corelli and his partner, ornery vegan Vernon Cates, arrive to begin the investigation, they can't quite penetrate the networks of secrecy that blanket the school like ivy. They turn to first-year English department intern Madeline Christopher, whose youth and outsider status make her an ally and a target for both the student body and faculty. The twisted path they all must take into the closed world of Armitage reveals not only what happened to Claire Harkness, but also the dark tunnels that can run beneath privilege.
Recommended for fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Bacon's (Split Estate) well-written, fast-paced novel is the perfect beginning to any literary mystery lover's summer reading list. --Sarah P. Miller, blogger at Blue Truck Book Reviews