The Sixes
by Kate White
Review: A visiting lecturer at a small college in Pennsylvania gets involved in the search for a killer in The Sixes, a suspense novel by Kate White.
Phoebe Hall was riding high as the bestselling author of a number of tell-all celebrity books when a charge of plagiarism causes her publisher to put her future books on hold. A close friend, Glenda Johns, now the President of Lyle College, offers her a temporary position on the staff, teaching a couple of classes. Eager for a change of scenery, Phoebe readily agrees. When a student goes missing, and is later found drowned, Glenda asks Phoebe to get involved in the on-campus investigation, but while she's at it to also learn what she can about a secret society that may exist, a group known only by their signature, the number 6.
The premise is fine here: a secret society that exists in a small rural college that may or may not be involved in murder. Phoebe says as much early on in conversation with a colleague: "Lily's death might not be connected to [the Sixes], but Glenda wants me to look into the group regardless. As you said, it's a problem in its own right." As a potential movie-of-the-week, the storyline may work given the right casting and visuals. But as a suspense novel, the primary problem is that the secret society is never portrayed as anything but an illicit campus organization, and hardly a menacing one at that. And all the misdirection that is thrown its way doesn't amount to much. To its credit, the book is fast-reading and doesn't stray too far from Phoebe's amateur sleuthing, but given the rather lame motive for the murder and how it is resolved in the end, it's all a little less than memorable.
Acknowledgment: Authors on the Web provided an ARC of The Sixes for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
Hush
Harper (Hardcover), March 2010
ISBN-13: 9780061576614; ISBN-10: 0061576611
Location(s) referenced in The Sixes: Pennsylvania
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The Sixes by Kate White
Publisher: Harper
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-06-157662-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-157662-1
Publication Date: August 2011
List Price: $24.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Phoebe Hall’s Manhattan life has suddenly begun to unravel. Right after her long-term boyfriend breaks off their relationship, she’s falsely accused of plagiarizing her latest bestselling celebrity biography. Looking for a quiet place to put her life back together, Phoebe jumps at the offer to teach in a sleepy Pennsylvania town at a small private college run by her former boarding school roommate and close friend, Glenda Johns.
But behind the campus’s quiet cafÉs and leafy maple trees lie evil happenings. The body of a female student washes up on the banks of a nearby river, and disturbing revelations begin to surface: accusations from coeds about abuses wrought by a secret society of girls on campus known as The Sixes. To help Glenda, Phoebe embarks on a search for clues — a quest that soon raises painful memories of her own boarding school days years ago.
,br>As the investigation heats up, Phoebe unexpectedly finds herself falling for the school’s handsome psychology professor, Duncan Shaw. But when nasty pranks turn into deadly threats, Phoebe realizes she’s in the middle of a real-life nightmare, not knowing whom she can trust and if she will even survive.
Plunging deeper into danger with every step, Phoebe knows she’s close to unmasking a killer. But with truth comes a terrifying revelation: your darkest secrets can still be uncovered … and starting over may be a crime punishable by death.