One of the New York Times Book Review's Top Ten Best Crime Novels of 2020
One of USA Today's Best Books 2020
"[A] hypnotic debut. . . .[An] uncommonly clever whodunit."--New York Times Book Review
Perfect for lovers of Agatha Christie and The Secret History, The Truants is a seductive, unsettling, and beautifully written debut novel of literary suspense--a thrilling exploration of deceit, first love, and the depths to which obsession can drive us.
People disappear when they most want to be seen.
Jess Walker has come to a concrete campus under the flat gray skies of East Anglia for one reason: to be taught by the mesmerizing and rebellious Dr. Lorna Clay, whose seminars soon transform Jess's thinking on life, love, and Agatha Christie. Swept up in Lorna's thrall, Jess falls in with a tightly knit group of rule-breakers--Alec, a courageous South African journalist with a nihilistic streak; Georgie, a seductive, pill-popping aristocrat; and Nick, a handsome geologist with layers of his own.
But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken, until a tragedy shatters their friendships and love affairs, and reveals a terrible secret. Soon Jess must face the question she fears most: what is the true cost of an extraordinary life?
An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of January
A USA Today Must-Read Book of Winter
An Observer Book of the Year (UK)
A Marie Claire Top 5 Christmas Read (UK)
A Times Best New Crime Novel (UK)
A Guardian Top 10 Golden Age Detective Novel
An Irish Times Best Debut of 2019
An Apple Books Pick for January
- ISBN10 0525541969
- ISBN13 9780525541967
- Publish Date 28 January 2020 (first published 8 August 2019)
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc
- Imprint G P Putnam's Sons
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525541967