Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 10/21/2022 + 1176 more book reviews

I have read and enjoyed several books by Ware including THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10, THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY, and a few more. I felt some were better than others with THE IT GIRL falling somewhere in the middle. The plot of this one seemed familiar to me. The protagonist Hannah is a student at Oxford's Pelham College with a clique of several friends including April, her roommate and a very bright and vivacious young woman who can also be vicious by playing not-so-funny practical jokes on others. April's boyfriend is Will. But is Will faithful to April and is April faithful to Will? Then one night, April is murdered. Her death is discovered by Hannah and another friend, Hugh. Hannah sees a man leaving the staircase to April's room shortly before her body is discovered. The man is a porter at the college named John Neville and he is arrested and convicted of the killing. But did he actually do it?

The novel is written from Hannah's perspective both before the murder takes place and then 10 years after. The story alternates between these two timeframes and ten years later, Hannah is not sure what really happened that night and whether or not Neville is the murderer. He dies in prison and always claimed his innocence. Ware keeps you guessing throughout and throws in a lot of red herrings before the gripping conclusion of the story which was a complete surprise to me. I think Ware is a very good writer and is great at character development but this one seemed a little overlong to me and I was anxious to get it over with. Mild recommendation overall.

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