Customer Reviews
A good read but shouldn't be compared to the Secret History - By: Herman Melville, 21 Jul 2008 
The comparisons to the Secret History were inevitable given that it's a campus murder story with a bit of latin thrown in probably to encourage those comparisons but it's not as clever or well written as that & is trying a bit hard to be so. Having said that it is a very enjoyable thriller.
Much better than The Secret History - By: Sad Classics Teacher, 27 Apr 2008 
This is a book which is not only beautifully written & suspenseful, leaving a feeling that you have read something important, but which also gives the impression that the author reallly knows about Latin & teaching & teenaged girls. Its only resemblance to The Secret History is that they both involve Classical languages; this book is much more real, & not self-conscious in style, & it makes you care very much about its characters. It will also make you want to start keeping a diary in turquoise ink.
Amo, amas, amat. - By: Jane Baker, 01 Jan 2008 I'm not sure why the reviews on the back page of this book are so lightweight - Family Circle, Woman & Home et al when the novel is so full of Latin Quotes, lines of poetry & academic in style with exquisite prose. Very original in storyline, characters & crafting of the plot. Gripping.
Excellent story - very well written - By: Tracey Priest, 31 Dec 2007 Im not going to go in to too much detail as others before me have already done this but I just wanted to say what a fantastic book this was! I planned to read it over the Christmas & New Year break at a slow pace & reallly enjoy getting absorbed! I did get absorbed but I couldnt put the book down & read it within 5 days!
It reallly is a book that grips you from the start. There are so many twists & turns in it that you never know what may be round the next corner & you cant wait to find out 'Who dunnit!'.
I would certainly recommend this book to others who enjoy psychological thrillers!
Beautiful and compelling - By: S.B., 09 Jan 2007 "Latin's a dead language,
As dead as dead can be.
It killed off alll the Romans,
And now it's killing me."
The old rhyme seems to be coming true for Heart Lake School for Girls, & not for the first time.
Like every girl at Heart Lake, Jane Hudson had known the old legend of the three sisters, transformed into rocks in the lake, who lured the unsuspecting out to their death by drowning. In her senior year, her two roommates & the boy she secretly loves are drowned in the lake: suicide, or accident? The School blames their Latin teacher, the charismatic Helen Chambers; Jane thinks she knows the truth, which now lies at the bottom of the Lake.
After the birth of her daughter, & her separation from the father, Jane returns to Heart Lake to take up Helen's old post. When pages from her senior year journal, long thought lost, begin to appear amongst her students' assignments, & then one of her class is found having apparantly attempted suicide, it seems that events are repeating themselves, or at least, that someone wants to make it seem that way. Then her love's cousin, a man with his own strange link to Jane's past reappears. Is everything just adolescent hysteria, or is something more sinister happening?
I enjoyed this very much. Though there are obvious plot similarities with Donna Tartt's The Secret History, this is a much more emotional book, its insanity much closer to the surface. In particular, the change between schoolgirl Jane, weak, scared, insecure, & the more assured Jane who returns to Heart Lake is well done. The plotting is intricate if a little heavy-handed. I defy anyone not to see who the villain is by about half way through, though ultimately, this does not matter; the important transformation is Jane's discovery of the truth about her own past, & this is completely compelling.
