Review: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
M.L. Rio's novel about student rivalries turned ugly starts strong but goes downhill in the second act. As the novel opens, Oliver Marks is being released from prison, having spent the past ten years there. The detective responsible for putting him away is waiting at the gate. Now retired, he wants to know the truth. And so, Oliver begins a story of an elite group of Shakespearian actors in their fourth and final year of college. Only the best of the best are allowed to continue in to their final year at Dellecher Classical Conservatory and, unsurprisingly, rivalries and tensions are quite high. But the biggest challenge of all occurs when a terrible crime is committed and the six remaining students have to convince the police that they are innocent ... In many ways, this novel feels like a poor cousin to The Secret History. Much like the eccentrics that fill the pages of Donna Tartt's modern classic, this group of students are wealthy and part of an exclusive group who do eve...