The it girl

Review by Booklist Review

April Clarke-Cliveden was the It Girl. "Whatever it was, she had it." She was dazzlingly beautiful, rich, and irrepressible. Her propensity for playing practical jokes knew no bounds. After her roommate, Hannah, finds April strangled in their shared quarters at Oxford, a university porter is convicted of the murder, thanks in part to Hannah's testimony against him. He dies in prison 10 years later, still asserting his innocence. Hannah is now pregnant and married to April's former boyfriend. The media are after her, making her life miserable once again, and then one of their former classmates tells Hannah something that leads her to doubt what she saw--or thought she saw. The narrative is related in brief alternating chapters, from "before" and "after." Ware develops both the reader's doubts about and concern for Hannah as the suspense builds gradually under a masterful barrage of red herrings. Hannah is certainly vulnerable, but how reliable is she? Seasoned mystery readers will ache for a vintage Inspector Morse to magically appear in the vivid Oxford setting, but Hannah must go it alone, determined to learn the truth, through a harrowing conclusion. Like Ware's earlier novels, this one employs another closed setting, although it eventually opens up to a wider world. Riveting.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This exceptional psychological thriller from Ware (One by One) probes how much one can trust others--and one's self. Hannah Jones's Oxford University roommate, April Clarke-Cliveden, is everything Hannah isn't: wealthy, sophisticated, sexually adventurous, and occasionally cruel. The two become best friends despite their differences and the unspoken attraction between Hannah and April's boyfriend, Will. Moments after Hannah sees college porter John Neville leaving their residence building, she finds April strangled. Though Neville is later convicted of the murder, the crime, trial, and subsequent media furor upend Hannah's life. Ten years later, she's living in Edinburgh, married to Will, and pregnant. Days after Neville dies in prison, a journalist emails her with evidence that calls the porter's guilt into doubt. Fearing her testimony helped convict an innocent man, Hannah feels compelled to revisit the murder with the three Oxford friends that knew April best. The memories shared by mild-mannered doctor Hugh, mathematician Emily, and Ryan, who has suffered a stroke since their college years, call most of what she's believed about April and her death into question. Alternating past and present chapters build toward a gripping denouement as nicely chosen details bring each character vividly to life. This showcases Ware's gifts to the fullest. Agent: Eve White, Eve White Literary (U.K.). (July)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Ware (One by One) has written another Agatha Christie-esque novel with her signature twist ending. Hannah Jones meets popular and carefree It Girl April Clarke-Cliveden on her first day at Oxford. They quickly form a close friend group with Emily, Ryan, Hugh, and Will. By the end of the semester, April is dead. A decade later, the man accused of her murder has died in prison proclaiming his innocence. When a young reporter starts asking questions, Hannah begins investigating what really happened that night. She soon realizes there are some answers she may not want to know. Imogen Church provides a well-done narration of the tense, twist-filled mystery. The It Girl explores the group dynamics and the lengths to which someone will go to protect themselves. The repercussions are explored as well, as listeners are introduced to each of the characters and the effects that April's murder has had on them. VERDICT Ware's newest novel is a must-add for mystery collections that will appeal to her fans and new readers alike.--Elyssa Everling

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Ten years after having discovered her Oxford roommate's dead body in front of the fireplace in their room, a young woman struggles with the realization that she may have helped send the wrong man to prison. Hannah Jones arrives at Oxford hardly believing that she's been accepted into this haven of learning and wealth. Sharing a picturesque set of rooms with the flamboyant and beautiful April Clarke-Cliveden, she divides her time between rigorous studying and energetic socializing with Emily Lippmana, Ryan Coates, Hugh Bland, and Will de Chastaigne, with whom she shares an attraction even though he's April's boyfriend. It's a good life except for the increasingly creepy interactions she has with John Neville, one of the porters. When Hannah finds April dead one night just after she's seen Neville coming down the stairs from their rooms, it's her testimony that puts him in jail. Ware divides the novel into alternating "before" and "after" chapters, with the narrative of Hannah's college experience unfolding parallel to the events of her life nearly a decade later, when she's married to Will and pregnant with their first child. Then Neville dies in prison and Hannah hears from a reporter who thinks he might actually have been innocent. Hannah begins to wonder herself, and she plunges back into the past to see if she can figure out what really happened that night. As usual with Ware, the novel is well crafted--the setting, characters, and dialogue are all engaging--but it lacks the author's signature sense of urgent and imminent threat. The novel unfolds smoothly, providing a few twists and turns, as the reader might expect, but not really delivering any true suspense. It also lacks the contrast between a luxurious background and the characters' fears that Ware has often played to great effect. She does offer a deeper dive into the trauma of the survivors than she usually does, but this isn't the breathless page-turner one has come to expect from Ware. Delightfully readable fiction, but the mystery disappoints. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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1. Before BEFORE Afterwards, it was the door she would remember. It was open , she kept saying to the police. I should have known something was wrong . She could have retraced every step of the walk back from the Hall: the gravel crunching beneath her feet of the path across Old Quad, under the Cherwell Arch, then the illegal shortcut through the darkness of the Fellows' Garden, her feet light on the dew-soaked forbidden lawn. Oxford didn't need KEEP OFF THE GRASS signs; that lawn had been the preserve of dons and fellows for more than two hundred years without needing to remind undergraduates of the fact. Next, past the Master's lodgings and along the path that skirted round the New Quad (close on four hundred years old, but still a hundred years younger than the Old Quad). Then up staircase VII, four flights of worn stone steps, right up to the top, where she and April slept, on the left-hand side of the landing, opposite Dr. Myers's rooms. Dr. Myers's door was closed, as it always was. But the other door, her door, was open. That was the last thing she remembered. She should have known something was wrong. But she suspected nothing at all. She knew what happened next only from what the others told her. Her screams. Hugh following her up the stairs, two at a time. April's limp body sprawled across the hearth rug in front of the fire, almost theatrically, in the photos she was shown afterwards. But she could not remember it herself. It was as if her brain had blocked it out, shut down, like a memory glitch on a computer: file corrupted --and no amount of patient questioning from the police ever brought her closer to that actual moment of recognition. Only sometimes, in the middle of the night, she wakes up with a picture in front of her eyes, a picture different from the grainy Polaroids of the police photographer, with their careful evidence markers and harsh floodlit lighting. In this picture the lamps are dim, and April's cheeks are still flushed with the last glimpse of life. And she sees herself running across the room, tripping over the rug to fall on her knees beside April's body, and then she hears the screams. She is never sure if that picture is a memory or a nightmare--or perhaps a mix of both. But whatever the truth, April is gone. Excerpted from The It Girl by Ruth Ware All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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