I'm going this book 2.5 stars (but rounding down instead of up so people don't mistake my review as an endorsement) for the simple reason that this book felt entirely too long.

It has potential: a dark mystery set at a college in England, it felt a bit like a companion to The Secret History. My frustration was in how it was written – it teases a current-day event, then spends 90% of the book providing the backstory leading up to this moment. That's a long time to wait for pay-off, so I grew impatient. Other books that employ the same technique but with greater success do so because the author creates characters that are so interesting and real that I happily immerse myself in the business of getting to know them – often so much so that I forget there is a present-day pay-off coming.