Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine’s sense that something isn’t quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Justine must decide where her loyalties lie. Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal and psychological suspense: Peter Jackson’s Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Marilynne Robinson’s among them. “Refreshing, compelling and surprising.”—Ann Morgan, author of and