■It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then, you come upon a book that is so spellbinding, it grabs you in a psychological chokehold and doesn’t let go until the very last page. Kate White’s newest mystery whodunit, “The Sixes,” does exactly that, adding a dash of collegiate nostalgia and a hint of romance to make it the perfect read for the long, chilly nights that are fast approaching.
Author of the Bailey Weggins mystery series and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, White knows a thing or two about the logistics of mystery writing and the art of being sexy. In “The Sixes,” she combines those elements to create a fast-paced thriller peppered with fashion references and colorful descriptions — of the characters and the clothing.
The book follows Phoebe Hall, a disgraced celebrity biographer accused of plagiarism who moves from Manhattan to a small college town in Pennsylvania run by her former boarding school roommate.
After learning of a young girl’s drowning in a nearby river, Phoebe becomes obsessed with figuring out what caused her demise and stumbles upon a secret society of dangerous, powerful girls and a potential serial killer. To add to her confusion, Phoebe finds herself falling for a fellow professor whose past leaves lingering doubts in the reader’s mind.
Throughout “The Sixes,” White wields suspect after suspect at the reader, planting suspicion in every single character. Each time it seems the answer is apparent, she hits you with a new piece of information that causes previous hypotheses to crumble.
There is a lot of action, both fast-paced and quietly progressive, in “The Sixes,” but White keeps the facts pristinely straight and keeps the reader imbued with a curiosity that rages like an itch that can’t be scratched. She waits until the very end to effortlessly put the pieces in place, and when she does, there is the aching feeling that it was simply so obvious.
White’s writing is elegant, yet down-to-earth. Her characters are so three-dimensional that it’s impossible to think of them as anything other than flesh-and-blood beings, and that likeability translates to an even more invested reading experience.
One thing that is clear from the beginning of “The Sixes” is that a new novel from White cannot come soon enough. Reading this book will only leave you wanting more.
Rating: W W W W W
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