Old Money

Miller spotlights the dark side of excessive wealth in her beguiling debut. When Alice Wiley was 11, her 16-year-old cousin Caitlin Dale died tragically during the Fourth of July weekend. Like all other privileged children in Briar’s Green, N.Y., Caitlin had been celebrating at the exclusive Horseman Club. Official reports said she slipped by the pool and drowned, but Alice knows it was murder, and she knows who did it. She told the police as much, but the boy Alice accused—Patirck Yates, son of the most powerful man in Briar’s Green—was never charged. Twenty years later, Alice returns to Briar’s Green and accepts a lowly job at the Horseman Club for one reason: to get justice. But little has changed in her absence. The same people who closed ranks around Patrick two decades ago are determined to keep protecting him, and as Alice digs deeper, she learns her former peers may be covering for more than just Caitlin’s death. Miller’s intricate plot drips with opulence and subterfuge as each of her well-drawn characters fights desperately to keep their secrets hidden. Fans of Ellery Lloyd will devour this intoxicating mystery. Agent: Allison Hunter, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Sept.)