"The Sixes" Review

(A) What sort of Hall is it that masquerades as a professor at a small college in Pennsylvania, and (B) what are pretty, smart, athletic and cunning? (Answer A) It’s Phoebe Hall, and her Manhattan life as a renowned celebrity biographer is in shambles after being falsely accused of plagiarism. (Answer B) The others are the rumored high society mean girls of fictional Lyle College in a secret-yet-not-so-secret society known as the Sixes. “The Sixes” (August 2, 2011) is a psychological thriller by Kate White.

            Phoebe chooses Lyle as her quiet destination upon a teaching offer from her former boarding school roommate and good friend, Dr. Glenda Johns, who is president of the college. Phoebe’s been in Lyle a mere two months when a student, Lily Mack, goes missing. She had spoken to Lily once two weeks before, but the girl seemed distressed. Now Phoebe was mentally kicking herself for not trying to figure out why the girl was in such distress. The next morning, the girl’s body is found washed up on the banks of a nearby river.

            And Lily’s isn’t the only body.

            As Phoebe’s devoted her professional life to the details of celebrities to create bestselling biographies, she is used to being in research mode. Glenda taps into Phoebe’s researcher-sense and prompts her to go on an “information-gathering mission” for the campus. There have been a lot of sixes turning up: at times, it’s the actual number, but other times it’s represented by six of something (e.g. checkmarks or lawn chairs).

            Once Phoebe begins asking suspected Sixes members questions, nasty pranks on Phoebe come to light. They involve things that aren’t too extreme like a bowl of six apples, but they escalate. Nevertheless, by now she is so invested in her research, she wants to continue, especially realizing the Sixes do exist, and that Lily, the deceased girl, was involved with the group. Were the Sixes involved in Lily’s murder? Is there a serial killer on the loose as the snooty, ego-high, Dean of Students, Tom Stockton, believes? Could the murderer even be the handsome psychology professor, Dr. Duncan Shaw? What is his possible connection to everything?

            Delving into this horrific case also brings to light negatives from her past. What happened to her when she was a boarding school student? (One word: Fortuna.) And can she finally work through it after all these years?

            There are plenty of other interesting, likely suspicious, tidbits that Phoebe uncovers. Glenda’s husband, Mark, has never been close to Phoebe, but now he is downright rude to her. Phoebe accidentally realizes that he has issues of his own. There’s also campus security head, Craig Ball, with his iffy scare tactics on students and Val Porter, a professor who has something to confess.

            If you like psychological thrillers and murder mysteries, you’ll want to read this stand-alone novel. Though Phoebe is the main character, there are a lot of supporting characters. On slim occasion it was tempting to mix up characters. For my part and for whatever reason, I kept wanting to confuse Tom Stockton with Craig Ball and vice versa, though I blame that entirely on the image that they both seemed impertinent. And to note, if it’s a concern for you, there are the occasional language vulgarities and scenes of intimacy, though nothing overly graphic.

            White takes this secret-society-psychological-thriller idea and runs with it. Will you fit the pieces together before Phoebe does? Can Phoebe piece them together to save her life? Remember, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.