Shocking mystery from the author of outstanding first novel Tully, in which an Ivy League campus is devastated by the intractable mystery at the heart of a student's death Four students and their relationships lie at the core of this dazzling novel of mystery, murder and suspense, set in a snowbound Ivy League college. Their focal point is brilliant basketball star Kristina Kim -- apparently happy and stable, but soon revealed to have hidden secrets. When she is found dead in the snow, it falls to local detective Spencer O'Malley, a man who had half fallen in love with her, to investigate the crime. The spotlight falls on her three closest friends! and a story as gothic and intense as a modern-day Wuthering Heights begins to unravel.

About the Author

Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad in 1963. As a child she emigrated to Queens, New York, and attended colleges in Long Island. Then she moved to England and attended Essex University, before returning to America. She has worked as a financial journalist and translator. She lives near New York with her husband and four children. Visit her website, paullinasimons.com, for more information about her bestselling novels.

Reviews

At 21, Kristina Kim is a senior at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. She is beautiful, pleasant, and the star player on the women's basketball team. Surrounded by her close friends Jim Shaw, Conni Tobias, and Albert Maplethorpe, Kristina has her whole life before her. But a week after Thanksgiving her body is found frozen in the deep snow near her dormitory. Spencer Patrick O'Malley, the detective in charge, coincidentally met Kristina shortly before her death and even had a date with her the week after the holiday. As Spencer conducts his investigation, he uncovers many peculiarities; for example, why did none of her trusted friends report Kristina missing in the nine days previous to the discovery of her body? When Spencer learns that Kristina died leaving $9 million to her friends, he digs deeper and finds a frightful secret. Simons's (Tully, LJ 4/15/94) characterizations are excellent, and she quickly draws the reader deeply into the nuances of the story. Highly recommended for fiction collections.‘Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo

Praise for Paullina Simons: Tully 'You'll never look at life in the same way again. Pick up this book and prepare to have your emotions wrung so completely you'll be sobbing your heart out one minute and laughing through your tears the next. Tully could be any one of us -- a young woman who is strong, full of hope and carrying a lot of childhood baggage. Her experiences of pain, despair and betrayal are offset by moments of dazzling joy, love and, above all, friendship. Read it and weep -- literally' Company Tatiana and Alexander 'This has everything a romance glutton could wish for: a bold, talented and dashing hero, a heart-stopping love affair ! It also has -- thank goodness -- a welcome sense of humour and discernable characters rather than ciphers.' Victoria Moore, Daily Mail

After her heralded but somewhat overwritten first novel, Tully, Simons has sharpened her craftsmanship to produce this suspenseful work about four friends at Dartmouth College whose close relationship is coming apart. The disintegration doesn't appear mortal, but it is. During a cold Thanksgiving weekend and its aftermath, Kristina, Jim, Conni and Albert study, play and occasionally sleep together, passionately addicted to each other's company. When Kristina's nude and frozen body is found in a snowbank, having been concealed there for some days, young small-town detective Spencer O'Malley investigates her death. He is drawn into the group's games and lies just as he was drawn to Kristina's compelling liveliness when he met her the day before she was killed. Why did her best friends fail to report her missing? Their answers to his fervent questions reveal a network of hidden secrets and jealousies that have long existed among them. But the hardly surprising solution to the crime doesn't appear until three years later, when the full significance of the title becomes clear. The narrative has striking similarities to the events in Donna Tartt's The Secret History, but Simons is not as fluent a writer, nor does the plot carry the philosophical resonance of Tartt's more sophisticated work. Yet Simons handles her characters and setting (both the New Hampshire campus and the moneyed neighborhoods of Greenwich, Conn.) with a certain skill, creating mystery from the ordinary, protected lives of these Ivy League kids, slowly peeling away their deceptions to reveal denial, cowardice and chilling indifference. In doing so, she tells an often engrossing story. BOMC selection; audio rights to Brilliance Audio; author tour. (Sept.)