The Truants

By: Kate Weinberg

Narrated by: Olivia Dowd

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

WOW!!!

Loved this book. If you love The Secret History and things set in academia this is for you. Atmospheric, interesting characters, beautiful prose and well oaxed plot.

Ending???

Great story....I did not like how it ended. I felt as if I had been left adrift.

Hinged on ending

I couldn't stop listening to this book, beautiful compelling. But the end was a disappointment. Not worthy of Christie, who it references.

Not as Described

More a character study. Coming of age - maturing of a girl. Also if you have strong feelings about abortion this is not the book for you.

Great writing cannot make up for the story

This reads like a work of fine literature, but pedestrian teenage angst is what it is really about. There really are no surprises.
The protagonist is really a babe in the woods. However, Kate Weinberg writes so evocatively that I would be happy to listen to her next book.