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The ReadDown

Back to School: Mystery

What better way to prepare for going back to school than by solving a few crimes in academia. Try out these mystery books set in boarding schools, universities, and more!

  1. 1
    Picnic at Hanging Rock Book Cover Picture
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    Picnic at Hanging Rock

    by Joan Lindsay

    It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. . . .
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    Paperback
    $17.00

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  2. 2
    The Swallows Book Cover Picture
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    The Swallows

    by Lisa Lutz

    A teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war—with deadly consequences—in this dark and provocative novel by the bestselling author of The Passenger.
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    Paperback
    $17.00

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  3. 3
    One of Us Is Lying Book Cover Picture
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    One of Us Is Lying

    by Karen M. McManus

    On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Only, on of them never makes it out of that classroom. Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
    One of Us Is Lying Book Cover Picture
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    Paperback
    $12.99

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  4. 4
    People Like Us Book Cover Picture
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    People Like Us

    by Dana Mele

    Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple.
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    Hardcover
    $18.99

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  5. 5
    The Secret History Book Cover Picture
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    The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt

    Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
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    Paperback
    $18.00

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  6. 6
    Robert B. Parker's The Bitterest Pill Book Cover Picture
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    Robert B. Parker’s The Bitterest Pill

    by Reed Farrel Coleman

    When a popular high school cheerleader dies of a suspected heroin overdose, it becomes clear that the opioid epidemic has spread even to the idyllic town of Paradise. It will be up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it, and the investigation has a clear epicenter: Paradise High School.
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    Mass Market Paperback
    $9.99

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  7. 7
    Orphan Monster Spy Book Cover Picture
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    Orphan Monster Spy

    by Matt Killeen

    After her mother is shot at a checkpoint, fifteen-year-old Sarah meets a mysterious man with an ambiguous accent, a suspiciously bare apartment, and a lockbox full of weapons. He’s part of the secret resistance against the Third Reich, and he needs Sarah to hide in plain sight at a school for the daughters of top Nazi brass, posing as one of them. If she can befriend the daughter of a key scientist and get invited to her house, she might be able to steal the blueprints to a bomb that could destroy the cities of Western Europe.
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    $12.99

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  8. 8
    Bunny Book Cover Picture
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    Bunny

    by Mona Awad

    The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.
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    $18.00

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  9. 9
    Tell Me Everything Book Cover Picture
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    Tell Me Everything

    by Cambria Brockman

    In her first weeks at Hawthorne College, Malin is swept up into a tight-knit circle that will stick together through all four years. In a mesmerizing novel that peels back the innumerable layers of a seductive protagonist, debut author Cambria Brockman brings to life an entrancing story of friendship, heartbreak, and betrayal.
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    $17.00

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  10. 10
    A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Deluxe Edition Book Cover Picture
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    A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder: Deluxe Edition

    by Holly Jackson

    For readers of Kara Thomas and Karen McManus, an addictive, twisty crime thriller with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about a closed local murder case that doesn’t add up, and a girl who’s determined to find the real killer–but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
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    $14.99

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