96. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Richard Papen arrives at Hampden College in Vermont ready to reinvent himself. He is quickly drawn into a group of five eccentric students who are studying Greek with the influential Julian Morrow. Julian urges his students to become completely immersed in their Classics studies, and when the students take up his offer and take part in a wild bacchanalian frenzy and end up killing a local farmer, the group dynamics change. One of the group members can’t stop talking about the death, and the group must decide how far they will go to keep their secret safe.

As I wrote in my blog introduction, this book is one of my favorite books and one that I read every year. I love the small campus and Vermont setting, and the autumn atmosphere that the novel starts out in. Part gothic, part psychological thriller, it is a disturbing look at group dynamics and how far ordinary people will go to keep a secret.