83. Every Secret Thing by Ann Tatlock

Prep school Seaton Hall has always been a special place for Beth Gunnar. She was a student there thirty years ago and jumped at the chance to teach at Seaton when an English teaching position opened. While she was a student at Seaton, her favorite English teacher, Theodore Dutton, mysteriously disappeared from the campus. Beth was part of a group that hung out with Mr. Dutton, and the students all saw him collapsed in his cabin after slitting his wrists. However, the school insisted that he had a heart attack and had to leave campus. Back at Seaton as an adult, the mystery of what happened to her favorite teacher continues to haunt Beth.

I kept waiting for some mystery or thickening plot to occur, but it never materialized in this novel. It could have been a great story, and reviews have likened it to one of my favorite books, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I had no idea that this was a Christian fiction book either until religious references popped up toward the end. This could have been a better book, but it wasn’t entirely bad. Women readers might connect to Beth’s growing attachment to fellow student Satchell Queen, and her failed attempt at romance with an old fellow student.