The Goldfinch has been the much touted and discussed novel by Tartt, but I found her earlier novel, The Secret History, to be a much better read. It is a mystery where you know who was murdered, where he was murdered and by whom within the first few pages. Tartt spends the rest of the novel developing the why he was murdered. It is an excellently spun novel, brilliantly written. The story is narrated by Richard, a student attending a picturesque college in Vermont. Richard has been accepted into a close group of students studying ancient Greek with a highly acclaimed professor who has a mysterious past. Other students on the campus find the group a little too secretive and a little odd, but that doesn’t affect their close relationships. The title is very appropriate as the reader slowly becomes knowledge of the secrets surrounding the murder.
This is an elegantly written 500 plus page-turner that keeps you guessing up to the last page.
–Cynthia, Paulina Springs Books, Sisters and Redmond, OR
Find The Secret History and other oldies-but-goodies at Paulina Springs Books and other independent bookstores.