A new student, very reminiscent of the main character from Catcher in the Rye, enrols at Hampden College, Vermont, having left his home town in California. He fabricates a history for himself which he feels will live up to people's expectations of Californian life. He joins a small select class of five students studying classical Greek under the fabled Julian Morrow.

I thought the book would a morph between Dangerous Minds and Dead Poet's Society where the reclusive, eccentric Morrow would rescue his deadbeat Californian student from a life of mediocrity. Tartt will surprise you, though. Morrow is very much a cameo character but is none the less interesting and complex, despite his small role. Tartt has developed all of her characters exceptionally well and she lets you inside the minds of these five young students as she takes you on a journey that led them to kill one of their own peers, one of their fellow classical Greek class mates.

Utterly believable, frequently disturbing, this book is worth the read. I found it to be a fairly gripping read, although Tartt does drop the pace towards the end of the book and allows things to drag for a bit before a plot twist picks you up and carries you rapidly through to her chilling end. An excellent debut novel.