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I did not do a very good job this time of picking a book I would like. I had previously read Tartt’s The Goldfinch and loved it (see my review), so I decided to pick up another of her works. This story revolves around a group of six college students enrolled in a very small program studying ancient Greek. The narrator is the most recent addition to this elite, arrogant, self-absorbed group. We are told of their involvement in a murder from the outset. Part I leads up to this murder, and Part II relates the aftermath.

While the writing was elegant, I found the characters thin and the plot far-fetched. Is it really that easy to get a group of young people to go along with murder? And even assuming they do, wouldn’t at least one of them feel remorseful? I was not convinced. Another issue I had with this book is that the narrator suddenly gets amnesia whenever a major plot point unfolds. Rather than getting some sort of explanation for the many disturbing incidents, we get something to the effect of “I really can’t remember what happened.� However, with other trivial events, he has no trouble remembering entire long-winded conversations. As the book progressed, I found myself not caring about the outcome. There are lots of positive reviews for this book, but it was not to my taste.