Tell Us No Secrets

Set during the 1969–1970 academic year at the Stonybridge School for Girls in the Berkshires, Sterling’s solid debut follows four 17-year-old girls through their senior year. Class president and jock Abby Madison used to be best friends with delicate star pupil Karen Mullens, but replaces Karen with the beautiful albeit unscholarly Cassidy Thomas as her new best friend. Devastated, Karen forms a close friendship with mature nonconformist Zoey Spalding, who was previously best friends with Cassidy. Fed up with her time at Stonybridge, Zoey proposes an “entertaining” idea to Karen: putting a star next to each student on the senior class list who loses her virginity. What starts out as fun turns into a domino effect of exposed secrets and rising tensions among the girls. Near the end of the school year, one of the four is murdered, with no suspect found. Scattered throughout are chapters that take place in 2018, narrated by an anonymous Stonybridge alumna who knows the truth about the murder. The result is a slow-burn psychological thriller filled with well-developed characters that builds to a satisfying, if unsettling, conclusion. Sterling is a writer to watch. Agent: Cindy Blake, Viney Agency. (June)