Lectures and Lechery Lurk Around Every Corner in These 8 Dark Academic Mystery Novels

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Ten years ago, Oliver Marks and six of his friends were attending a prestigious arts assemblage studying Shakespeare. But with aggravated acting coaches forcing them to exposure their insecurities, competitions for roles successful their large production, and interpersonal drama, their friendships veer into unsafe territory, landing Oliver successful situation for a murder. But present he’s retired free, and the detective who initially investigated the lawsuit comes backmost to find retired what truly happened a decennary ago.

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A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari

Saffron Everleigh has the coveted presumption arsenic Dr. Maxwell’s biology probe adjunct astatine University College successful London, and besides happens to beryllium the lone pistillate successful the section successful 1923. At a meal enactment with her coworkers, the woman of Dr. Henry collapses, but was it a lawsuit of poisoning oregon conscionable an allergic reaction? When constabulary eyes crook to Dr. Maxwell due to the fact that of a caller spat betwixt him and Dr. Henry, Saffron is determined to wide her mentor earlier she loses her hard-won presumption successful specified a male-dominated space.

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

A decennary aft graduating from the renowned Duquette University, Jessica Miller returns for their class’s reunion, hoping they each spot her arsenic the cleanable idiosyncratic she ever wanted to be. But with the execution of her roommate haunting her and her aged friends, forbidden relationships, and the cutthroat attitudes of the past backmost successful the forefront, the reunion mightiness not beryllium truthful joyous aft all.

Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight

After the decease of a chap pupil successful the botany lab, Nell Barber is expelled from her PhD programme wherever she was studying poisons. Obsessed with her mentor, she can’t fto what she had gaffe distant from her. She crowds her flat with plants to study, dictating what she finds and the communicative of what happened successful that laboratory successful notebooks to her mentor, Joan. Hex is an exploration of devotion and what it tin thrust america to do.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Ines, isolated and disconnected the rails, jumps astatine the escaped tuition, country and board, and amenities of the prestigious Catherine House schoolhouse that produces bigwigs and household names successful spades. There, she’s not allowed to interaction anyone from the extracurricular world, lone absorption connected her courses. But erstwhile her roommate, Baby, dies, Ines is near wondering what happened and wherefore the schoolhouse seems truthful determined to get her to halt asking questions.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

After years of hard enactment and navigating the racism rampant astatine their school, Chiamaka and Devon are selected arsenic caput lad and miss astatine Niveus Private Academy. But their presumption makes them a people of Ace, an anonymous relationship that posts their backstage photos and secrets for the satellite to see. The 2 indispensable squad up to instrumentality down Ace earlier the messages go unsafe for them both.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Mariana is simply a radical therapist grieving implicit the nonaccomplishment of her husband. When her niece’s champion person dies portion attending Cambridge University, Mariana returns to the field to help. A concealed nine of pistillate students, The Maidens, and a suspicion that Greek Tragedy processor Edward Fosca is the origin of the girl’s decease collide, compelling Mariana to bash immoderate digging herself. But past traditions prevarication deep, and getting entree into concealed societies isn’t ever the safest, particularly erstwhile lives are astatine stake.

The Truants by Kate Weinberg

Jess leaves her household down to prosecute a grade astatine the University of Esat Anglia, studying Agatha Christie nether her idol and English professor, Lorna Clay. There, she becomes obsessed with a journalist, Alec, contempt his attachment to her caller friend, Georgie. As the relationships betwixt the students successful the programme get much and much complicated, tensions emergence and Lorna Clay’s statement that artists indispensable destruct their idiosyncratic lives to make thing large mightiness conscionable travel existent for them all.