However, guessing so early didn’t ruin the book for me, because there still was a mystery in it. It’s in the second half where the clues seem to start pointing the other way. Part of me wonders if the book was trying to set up the culprit early, and then wanted to make you doubt yourself. I think I’ve just read a lot of books recently where this specific culprit trope is used, so I was going in expecting this anyway, and then the first page seemed to confirm it for me. I’m not entirely sure why I got it that early. It’s interesting to read a book where you guess the culprit on page 1. It leaves you guessing how the next murder will occur – and who the next victim is. Particularly when they have state-of-the-art facilities, and so have access to a lot of potential weapons (and also knowledge.) The variety of accidents and deaths adds to the tension, because of the sheer inventiveness of how they all happen. Kids getting picked off one by one in an isolated boarding school is such a tense premise.

This is a creepy little book about an elite school with a secret society forming the head girl/boy and prefects (nothing every goes wrong with that, does it?) And when a fully paid scholarship to any university is on the cards, then there are some lines people will cross to get that. Find on Amazon UK, the Book Depository, and Bookshop UK (affiliate links) Synopsis taken from the back of the book.

Someone is determined to clear their path t the top and they’ll stop at nothing. So when a series of murders target the school’s brightest and best, the pressure is on. The students at Morton Academy are high-achievers, selected based on academic excellence.

Win lose kill die series