Very Bad Things

In her first book for teens, adult author McBride (the Dropout Debutant Mystery series) draws readers into upper-crust society and the dangerous secrets that lie beneath it. Fifteen-year-old Katie has felt unsettled during her four years at a New England prep school, despite having a loyal best friend in her roommate Tessa and dating Mark, a hockey star and the headmaster’s son. Lately she has reason to worry: several students seem to want Katie’s relationship with Mark to end, and she suspects someone is following her, leaving roses in the library and her room. Then a “sex pic” of Mark and a Katie lookalike circulates, and after the girl in the photo turns up dead, Mark claims he can’t remember anything about the night when it was taken. To save her future with Mark, and possibly their lives, Katie tries to find the killer. McBride’s fast-paced plot is fueled by jumps between multiple characters’ perspectives, and her rendering of the venerable yet sinister school, complete with a web of subterranean steam tunnels, is as absorbing as the tightly wound mystery. Ages 12–up. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Oct.)