The Bones of the Story

The twisty locked-room mystery from two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, about a group of former classmates trapped on their college campus—with a murderer among them.

"One of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I've read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don't miss it!"—David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe and She’s Gone

One by one, their pasts will reveal the deadly truth...

It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the double tragedy. Now, the college President is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.

When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?

Carol Goodman’s rich and prolific career includes novels such as The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, winners of the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY.

“Superior… Goodman is superb at doling out reveals gradually, and toggling between past and present to build ample tension. Admirers of Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied will be enthralled.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Carol Goodman's The Bones of the Story deftly and intriguingly combines a decades-old campus mystery, a powerful winter storm, and a batch of suspects and potential victims to create one of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I've read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don't miss it!" — David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe and She’s Gone

“Carol Goodman's The Bones of The Story delivers the perfect mix of dark academia and locked-room thriller vibes in a tense cat-and-mouse game where decades-old secrets haunt every page and lead to deadly consequences.” — Darby Kane, #1 International bestselling author of Pretty Little Wife

“This smooth cocktail of refreshingly chilly suspense is sure to win [Goodman] new fans.” — Publishers Weekly on The Disinvited Guest

“Goodman, a master genre-blender, has integrated elements of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s ‘had-I-but-known’ gambit and Agatha Christie’s ‘alone-on-an-island’ theme to come up with a real winner.”   — Booklist (starred review) on The Disinvited Guest

“The Disinvited Guest is a tense, fever dream of a thriller in an extraordinary, atmospheric setting, gripping from first page to last. In a world under attack from a new virus, seven friends take refuge on a private, fog-drenched island where memories are both long and unreliable, illness lurks, the terrain is treacherous and even the island’s history has claws. Carol Goodman is a brilliant writer, and she shines here. Loved it.” — Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author

“[A] superior thriller…The plot takes many terrifying twists and turns en route to the surprising climax. Those with a taste for the gothic will be richly rewarded.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Stranger Behind You

“A mesmerizing narrative that culminates in a poignant ending to a brilliant journey. Gothic? Note the phantom lye and bleach stench and wait for it! Make sure fans of Shari Lapena and Alison Gaylin get their hands on this one.”  — Booklist on The Stranger Behind You

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