Review: The Twisted Thread by Charlotte Bacon

Title: The Twisted Thread

Author: Charlotte Bacon

Genre: New Adult, mystery

Publication date: June 2011

Published by: Hachette

Source: The publishers via Netgalley (Thanks!)

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Synopsis:

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 rating: ★★★☆☆
Claire Harkness was popular, beautiful, rich...everything! Too bad she was also found dead in her dorm room. Even worse, her newborn baby (the one they didn't know about...they didn't even know Claire was pregnant!) is missing O.O

All that is left behind is questions: who killed Claire and why? Where is the baby? And why did Claire decide she wanted to keep the baby and have him in school?

Madeline Christopher is an intern in the English department, and like the rest of the school, she is completely shaken up by the events and finds herself looking for clues to the above questions.

Matt, 33-years-old and a detective now, attended the prestigious Armitage Academy back in the day. Now he's back trying to decipher the puzzle that is Claire's death. But both Madeline and Matt discover that it will not be easy.

I LOVE a good mystery, and this one was wow! It was crazy, intense, amazing, and kinda unexpected. It was a really good read and I, sadly, did not guess correctly to any of the questions I stated above lol. Which is a good thing because I like being surprised.

But one thing I did not like was all the back stories. See, you'd have the character in the current situation, then suddenly you'd have him/her transported back to some event which I thought, at the moment, was totally irrelevant to what was going on currently in the story. I felt like the explanations went on forever when I just wanted to get back to solving the mystery!

There is one thing that really stuck to me when I took a course in creative writing last spring in college. Its something our professor would repeat over and over until it was burned into our brain: "Show, don't tell." And I felt like there was just too much telling in the book. Though now that I'm done reading, I look back I can see how some of the back stories were important to the bigger picture.

Overall, as I said before, it was a great read and I don't feel like I wasted my time reading this book. I recommend to anyone who like a good mystery :)

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a comment! :)