Killingly

Beutner, Katharine

£9.99

The young women at Mount Holyoke College are famed for their beauty and virtue – except for Agnes and Bertha. With their strange dresses, scholarly pursuits and intimate friendship, these two students are considered peculiar. One autumn morning, Bertha vanishes, leaving Agnes to wander the cold university halls alone. As a search team dredges the pond where Bertha might have drowned, an investigation into her disappearance begins. Agnes might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tight-lipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha’s family, the students at Mount Holyoke, and the detective hired for the case. As secrets from Bertha and Agnes’s lives begin to surface, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for her. What happened to Bertha? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive?

In stock

Publish Date: 09/05/2024

Description

*FEATURED IN SUNDAY TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, APPLE’S BEST BOOKS, AMAZON’S BEST BOOKS OF JUNE,CRIMEREADS RECOMMENDS AND LITHUB’S TOP BOOKS*’SARAH WATERS AND DONNA TARTT SQUAD, BUCKLE UP: Killingly is hitting the Plain Bad Heroines place in my heart again’ Autostraddle’Impressive’ Sunday Times’Gothic atmosphere, great period detail and a genuine shock at the end’ Guardian1897, New England. Agnes and Bertha are best friends. Clever, eccentric misfits at an elite college for young women, they study earnestly, write poems for each other and explore the woods around campus at night. One morning, Bertha vanishes.Called down from Boston, renowned missing person expert Detective Higham arrives to find the tranquil college in chaos. A treasured pearl dagger has disappeared from a student’s bedroom. The most popular debutante on campus is losing her mind. There are rumours of a ghostly woman at the train station.As he questions the students and teachers, Higham unearths a strange story of doomed love, ambition and tragedy which could shatter the college’s glittering reputation forever . . .A gothic, turn-of-the-century campus thriller about female desire, rage and ambition, perfect for fans of TRIFLERS NEED NOT APPLY, THE BINDING and FINGERSMITH . . .*EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT KILLINGLY:’A haunting story . . . will stay with me long after reading’ ELIZABETH LEE, author of Cunning Women’Completely engrossing. Unforgettable!’ MARTHA CONWAY, author of The Physician’s Daughter’Beutner is masterful at depicting the intrigue and innuendo of a women’s college. Perfect pacing . . . grows increasingly shocking as the pages turn’ The Akron Beacon Journal

Additional information

Weight 250 g
Dimensions 198 × 130 × 21 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

368

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K