If you like murder mysteries and want a quick read, this book could fit the bill. I found it hard to put down, even though (maybe because?) the characters are all pretty terrible people. Main character and narrator Jessica Miller is looking forward to her ten year college reunion, but when she returns to Duquette, some old ghosts get stirred up and the unsolved murder of her best friend and roommate will dominate the weekend’s activities. Could one of her friends, the infamous East House Seven, have killed Heather Shelby? Is Jessica a reliable narrator???
When the story opens, Jessica is a successful economic consultant of some sort in NYC. She just became the youngest partner ever at the prestigious firm where she works, but we learn that Jessica is never satisfied, never feels like she has earned enough or gotten the respect and admiration she deserves. Through the course of the novel, told in flashbacks between her college days and present day, we discover that Jessica was raised in a troubling family (she’s got daddy issues) and was dumped by the boyfriend she had throughout college — a guy who was considered the biggest catch on campus. Jessica dreams of returning to Duquette and finally getting the recognition she deserves, but the cloud of her friend Heather’s murder 10 years ago hangs over her head and will become the focus of the weekend.
Duquette, which seems like a stand in for Duke, is an expensive, not quite Ivy League school that Jessica was determined to attend when her dreams of Harvard were shattered. It’s more than her family can afford, but she is driven to succeed, to impress her dad, to attain the goals he set for himself and then failed to achieve. Within days of arriving on campus, Jessica meets six other residents of her dorm (East House) and they form a bond that will last for their four years. Heather is charming and comes from wealth, and while she befriends Jessica, she also sometimes makes comments that seem belittling or at least insensitive. Caro is a sweet girl whose devotion to her friends is fierce, but maybe a bit intense sometimes. Jack comes from a Southern holy-roller family and wants to experience independence; he and Heather are an item for their four years at Duquette. Frankie is a football star who, like Jessica, seems to need to live out his father’s dream, in this case the dream of an NFL career, and is willing to make many sacrifices to do so. Coop is the bad boy, a wildly independent guy who also is the campus drug dealer but has a soft spot for Jessica. And then there’s Mint, son of a very wealthy family known for its generosity to Duquette, but there’s trouble at home that Mint is determined to keep secret from others and/or rise above in order to succeed. On the fringes of the 7 is the campus beauty queen Courtney, who is close to Heather and who loathes Jessica for snagging Mint.
Heather was murdered on Valentine’s Day of their senior year, her bloodied body discovered in the dorm room that she shared with Caro and Jessica. The murder weapon was found under Jack’s bed and he was detained for Heather’s murder, but the authorities couldn’t make the charges stick. Jack has been living in NYC and Jessica secretly keeps in touch with him, never believing that he killed Heather even though the others all think he did it. Jack will not attend the reunion, but the rest of the gang and Jessica meet up, and while Jessica envisions a weekend of triumph for herself, something quite different happens. Heather’s younger brother Eric works in Duquette’s alumni office and attends the reunion, surprising the remaining members of the East House Seven with the investigation he has been conducting into his sister’s murder and her best friends’ secrets. He knows that one of them murdered his sister.
As the story unfolds, back and forth through the years, the reader learns the secrets of the seven — the jealousies, betrayals, drug use, ambitions — and we see that every one of Heather’s friends had both motive and opportunity to kill her. The slow unraveling of who did it and why is great fun to read. Each of the friends could be hurtful and selfish, but which one was driven to murder? The final reveal is pretty dramatic but overall satisfying. If you like murder mysteries and college drama, pick this one up.
