The story is not a Whodunit, but
a Whydunit. Like the Goldfinch, the
narrator, Richard Papen, is a misfit desperate to reinvent himself. The story is set in a college in New England
in the 1990s and, like the Goldfinch, features drink and drugs. Richard, feeling rudderless and wanting to
escape from his boring suburban life and his uncaring parents, gains a
scholarship to Hampden College. At
Hampden he finds himself drawn to a group of five clever and elitist students
(Henry, Camilla, Charles, Francis and Bunny) who are studying Greek under a charismatic
classics professor. Richard is invited to study with the closely knit group, but
he is never fully accepted. It opens
with a prologue depicting the aftermath of the death of Bunny and it is clear that
one of the group has murdered him and the others are implicit in the
murder. The first half of the book leads up to Bunny’s
death and the second half the fallout and impact of his death on the group.
