DEATH AT VASSAR
Fall 1959: Budding femme fatale Madeleine Rousseau returns to Vassar College utterly intent on attending next summer’s exchange program in Paris. But the arrival of an ethereal and charming roommate Rose Suggs thwarts her meticulous ploy to escape a dark secret. Madeleine, never one to lose, will ensure her dream life in France becomes reality, no matter the cost.
“There are many pretenders to the crown of Patricia Highsmith but Mathilde Merlot’s Death at Vassar is the real thing, a direct line in the Highsmith lineage. The description of the repressed and thus sexually boiling over 1950s, the deliciously coy and intelligent quality of the heroine, and the spot-on recreation of sometimes deadly emotions circulating on that era's college campuses all confirm this conviction. A revelation”
— Dennis Broe, author of Calamitous Corruption, The Harry Palmer 1940s LA Trilogy
“This book owns all the qualities you look for when you drown in a novel: moving, thrilling, profound and funny, extraordinarily psychological and entertaining.”
— Emmanuelle de Villepin, author of The Devil’s Reward
“Rich in characters and insightful of the dreams and desires of young women, this amoral and suspenseful tale also paints a beautifully bleak picture of the human condition.”
— Lars Bill Lundholm, best-selling author of the Stockholm Murder Series