Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown

I have a myriad of lists that I work off of for "What To Read Next" and one of my resources is Reese Witherspoon's book club. The selections often have a slightly lighter tone and are almost all well written. Most importantly, I like them and often would not have found my way to the book another way. Not every book is a home run for me, and this one was a miss. It is well written, suspenseful, and I read tons of murder mysteries so the fact that a couple of people die is not a turn off for me, but it put me on edge in a way that I don't enjoy--I struggled to pick it up, and while it had a lot of good literary qualities, I was relieved when it was over. The story follows Maya, a Princeton alum returning to campus for her 10-year reunion and her younger sister Naomi’s graduation. But what should be a joyous weekend quickly turns tragic when Naomi is found dead. The police rule it an accident, but Maya suspects foul play. As she digs deeper into her sister’s final months, Maya uncovers a tangled web of lies stretching back to her own time at Princeton. The supper clubs and secret societies at Princeton play a role (I recently read Leigh Bardugo's book that featured the Yale equivalent and neither Ivy comes off well fictionally speaking) as does the influence that money has on what happens on campus. I would heartily recommend this if a suspenseful book is your jam, that you like it when the tension rises and the complicated relationships that can happen when you keep your college friends well into adulthood. The mystery part of it is less spectacularly done, but not too bad either.