This is a many layered story which at its heart is a murder mystery/thriller set in a small, exclusive New England college, told from the perspective of the narrator, Richard Papen, an outsider from California. Papen is quickly seduced by an elite group of five Greek scholars and their charismatic tutor, Julian Morrow. He is drawn into their circle and learns their terrifying secret.
The novel begins with a prologue from which we are drawn immediately and compelling into the story that Papen unfolds.
It is a heady mix of mystery, Gothic romance, tragedy, psychology which brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope', Brideshead Revisited, The Blair Witch Project and Greek tragedies.
To many it is seen as a modern classic but what will readers in Ponders End make of it?
The Author
Donna Tartt is an American author who was born and raised in Mississippi. She was the daughter of a local politician. Born in 1963, she was only 28 when 'The Secret History' was first published while Tartt was still a student at a liberal US art college - Bennington College, which is in Vermont. Her second novel, 'A Little Friend' was published almost 10 years later in 2010.
More Information
For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Tartt and http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/oct/19/fiction.features
