Bright and Deadly Things

Oxford don Emily is off to a retreat of sorts at Chalet des Anglais—a large estate in the French Alps, owned by several of the Oxford colleges. Emily is recently widowed, and this Alpine sojourn, including students and faculty—several of whom are her friends—seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered. But from the get-go, something isn’t right. Her house is burglarized as she is leaving for the airport. At the Chalet, someone rifles through her belongings and attempts to log into her laptop. Friends, too, are acting oddly, while an attractive undergrad is busy putting the moves on nearly everyone, including Emily. Not exactly a locked-room—let’s call it a locked chalet—the house is tremendously remote and, naturally, without any Internet access. Elliott slowly and skillfully builds the tension, carefully layering conversations, glances, overheard conversations, diary entries, and annual reports from the Chalet’s earlier years. When all hell finally breaks loose—and it certainly does, in multiple ways—Emily is left without anyone she can trust, forced to recreate her world