27. The Power of Three

Another really good one by Laura Lippman. This one reminded me a bit of a combination of Jodi Piccoult's The Pact and 19 Minutes. I had some suspicions of the end result but there was definitely a few unseen twists and turns along the way to the end.

Here's the B&N review: Three longtime friends alone in a girls' bathroom on the last day of high school: Kat, the beautiful brainiac; Josie, the star athlete; and Perri, the drama queen. One shot dead, one in a coma, the other seriously wounded. What transpired between the self-proclaimed divas of the school: and what deep, dark secret is the one conscious survivor hiding?

The three girls, who have been inseparable since the third grade, had "trumped the system" and built a friendship that transcended the confines of their high school's cliques. Pledged to take care of each other and do good deeds in the world whenever possible, the girls had quickly become the luminaries of their Baltimore County school. Kat Hartigan was the beloved Stanford-bound homecoming queen. Josie Patel was headed to Maryland on a gymnastics scholarship. Perri Kahn had accepted a theatre scholarship to Northwestern. With everything to live for, what had possessed one of them to try to kill the other two, then herself? When Homicide Sergeant Harold Lenhardt begins to investigate the seemingly clear-cut case, he finds much more than he ever bargained for…

To the Power of Three -- equal parts coming-of-age tale, suburban murder mystery, and psychological thriller -- is a heartrending novel about childhood friendship and the perils of growing up that is certain to deeply affect everyone who reads it. Intense, thought provoking, and with a jaw-dropping bombshell of a conclusion, this bittersweet story is a page-turner of the highest order.