The Lake of Dead Languages

This superb debut of childhood purity drowned by dark crimes follows in the evocative tradition of Donna Tartt's first book, The Secret History. Jane Hudson left the Adirondacks' Heart Lake School for Girls twenty years ago after a horrific event. She just got divorced and is now a Latin teacher returning to the quiet, remote beaches of the lakeside school in the hopes of starting over with her little daughter. However, foreboding warnings from the past bring up long-forgotten memories that will turn into a nightmare come true.

Since their first year of college, Jane had been best friends with Lucy Toller and Deirdre Hall. They would study classic literature together, go on school girl rituals by the lake, and sneak out beyond curfew to hang out with Lucy's charming brother Matt. But everything changed the last winter before graduation. Because three lives were lost in that protected, ice-covered paradise—all as a result of needless suicide. In the shadowy depths of Heart Lake, only Jane was left to bear the weight of a mystery that has remained unsolved for more than 20 years.

Now, pages from Jane's lost journal—written during that terrible time—have surfaced, exposing startling revelations that have been kept for a long time. Abruptly, adolescent, unstable females are starting to pass away once again... as the shocking reality gradually emerges, fragment by fragment.

The Lake of Dead Languages is an elegant thriller that strikes a complex balance between tension and exquisite narrative. It is at once captivating, sensual, and clever, and it demonstrates Carol Goodman's status as a unique new talent with a bright future.

taken from the hardback copy.