Throughout the whole book you know something is off. Small town in Italy, history of tragic female "good" deaths, sketchy friends and lovers. Did not go where I thought it was going and I was hugely disappointed in the ending. ( )

I never let friends who are getting ready to send their daughters to Italy for a semester abroad read this book. ( )

3.5 stars

I'm a little... perplexed as to how to review & rate this book. It's engaging, well-paced, and ties everything up, so I'm comfortable with 3.5 stars.

Yet I feel like it reaches to be more - more like The Secret History, specifically. The study of the Classics, the thread of the deaths of young women in the region going back millennia, the shifting truths of each character all add weight and depth to this novel.

Yet the ending & the ties to the Knox/Kercher tale muddy things up. While this is not in any way a true crime expose, or historical fiction, the parallels are clear. Crouch even offers a way for Guede to be the killer, while explaining how Sollecito's DNA could be on Kercher's bra. But again, this just takes away from what else Crouch is doing here, & otherwise doing well: exploring how dangerous it is to be a young woman, throughout all of history. ( )