Mystery at the academia, metoo and a lot of secrets: Reputation by Sara Shepard

A massive hacking exposing 40,000 personal and professional email successfully targeted Aldrich University. All the dirty secrets are out in the open and from employees and students to donors, everyone is curious to read what other´s were doing or saying, and what episodes from their lives are now public. Greg, a successful surgeon, married with Kit, the daughter of the university dean is found murdered in his kitchen by his ebriated wife. Is she the killer? After all, she had more than one reason to do it, as an illicit affair with a Lolita is the gossip of everyone from the campus and well beyond. This nightmare took Kit completely by surprise, just arriving from a business trip where she met a handsome mysterious guy who, in fact was the husband of one of her coworkers. Maybe it was just too much for her: ´I just burried my second husband, a murder happened in my house, the whole world knows that my dead husband had an affair, and a man I made out with is married to my coworker. Am I really going to keep it together?´

But it´s hard to keep it together for everyone in this book. The crime put into motion a roller coaster of guilts, secret affairs and betrayal, untold secrets and trauma. No one is exempt and every single adult character in the story has some terrible guilt to carry on. Everyone is at a certain point suspect of something, if not of Greg´s murder directly. Dirty laundy appears where you expect less and the cracks are hidden everywhere, even in the most perfect looking relationships. 

Although there were some moments when I felt trapped in a never ending soap opera, with con artists and secret sexual habits, I´ve found the intrigue very well built and challenging for the reader. It is a very interesting story construction which only weakens in the very end. Personally, I´ve found the end too mild for what one was expecting after so many details and hints for a potential killer, but it´s not less relevant. The reference to the #Metoo movement is relevant for the context the events are taking place, as were the recent investigations regarding the problematic academic admissions and promotions in some high-end institutions in the USA.

Reputation by Sara Shepard is a tensed yet entertaining reading, with an unexpected end and some nicely crafted intrigue. A good companion as a summer or weekend bookish recommendation.

Rating: 3 stars