Review: THE TWISTED THREAD by Charlotte Bacon

The Twisted Thread First, I want to apologize for my lack of blog updates.  I’ve just been caught up with school, and I’m sure you’d rather not get a review of my Organizational Theory textbook.  J 

Now, on to the review!  On the campus of a prestigious boarding school in New England, a girl widely seen as the most powerful girl in school is found naked and dead in her dorm room.  Even more shocking, it is obvious that she had recently given birth to a baby no one knew she was carrying and the baby is nowhere to be found.  Told form the points of view of several different teachers and a local police detective, the secrets of the school begin to unfold. 

I really liked the character of Madeline, a twenty-five year old intern at the boarding school.  She is fun and messy and disorganized, yet incredibly real.  She is both out of place and exactly what the school needs.  Madeline’s natural curiosity leads her to do some investigating of her own, but thankfully she’s not stupid about it like a lot of characters in mysteries can be.  When she found out new information, she passed it on to the Detective in a timely manner.  I found that refreshing.

I began to get impatient with this story around page 89 (out of 383), when I thought I had it all figured out.  Luckily, I read on, because not only was I off on my assumption, but there were several different subplots which added to the depth of this story.  This book has a little bit of everything…murder, social classism, secret societies, a decades old scandal, terrible parenting, etc.  If anything, this book almost tried to do too much, but somehow it worked in the end.  I would have liked the end to have been a little quicker and cleaner, rather than drawn out with revelation after revelation over the span of the last 50 pages. 

Overall, I give THE TWISTED THREAD…

Plot – 4 bookmarks

Character Development – 4 ½ bookmarks (Bacon actually is even able to develop the character of the dead girl, which is no easy feat)

Mystery – 4 bookmarks

Dream Cast (otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) – Kate Bosworth (Madeline), Henry Cavil (Detective Matt), Taylor Kitch (Fred Naylor), Blake Lively (Claire Harkness), Helen Miren (Tamsin), Liam Hemsworth (Scotty)