Shadowy Campus Mystery in “The Sixes”

I love a good school thriller, don’t you? And  I love it even more when our protagonist is a professor, not a student. There’s just something so compelling about not knowing if the other teachers are all hiding something sinister or if they’re just being catty to the newest staff member.

In The Sixes, by Kate White, Phoebe Hall is recovering from a breakup and a plagiarism scandal, so she’s happy to take a semester teaching writing at Lyle College, where her old roomie and bestie is now the dean. This is another one of my favorite academia themes — the new teacher who’s restarting their career. She’s not quite returning to her old school, but the conspiracy and bullying she investigates will bring her to revisit some of her experiences from her boarding-school years.

Lily, a pretty young student, happens to get caught in the rain with Phoebe and make some comments about restarting one’s life. Phoebe thinks it’s about her own reinvention after her plagiarism scandal… but when Lily is reported missing and then found dead, it begins to sound different. Was Lily running from something so awful that she took her own life?  Is there a serial killer targeting students at different schools? Is her death just a tragic accident? She wouldn’t be the first student to have a few beers and fall into the river. Or is it the rumored secret society, the Sixes, taking revenge?

As Phoebe begins to investigate, there are loads of possible motives and possible connections on campus, which makes this a real pageturner. Readers are led to suspect different people, with different motives and different secrets. And I always love a thriller full of campus secrets! Although there are deaths and a lot of danger, there’s nothing gross at all, adding The Sixes to my 100% Gore-Free Thrillers list. I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t get more of the Sixes (or of Fortuna, really),  because I chose this one to read about the girls in the Sixes. The story gives us tantalizing hints about a society of mean girls wreaking vengeance on men, bullying other girls, and using shadowy wealth to somehow set members up for life, but doesn’t really spend as much time as I’d wanted and expected on the Sixes. The mystery in The Sixes is great, with plenty of misdirections and twists, and I liked the way things wrapped up, but also… where are my shadowy initiation rites? Where’s my ominous campus graffiti? Where’s my creepy origin story? I thought I was gonna read all about a dark secret society!

Have to admit that I didn’t much like the romance. A certain amount of tension come from whether the attractive man is lying to Phoebe about murder and conspiracy things, or just being a little shady about his past, and… I don’t have time for men just being a little shady, either. Phoebe, honey, he’s not the only single man on Earth. The romantic plotline just gave me intense eyerolls.

The Sixes is a solid campus mystery, with an ominous, dark feel. Recommended for fans of Madam, The Lake of Dead Languages, and Academy Girls.