Title: To the Power of Three
Author: Laura Lippman
Rating: 
4.5 stars out of 5
Publisher: William Morrow
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 0060506725
Pages: 434
Keywords: mystery
Reading period: 16 September, 2007
Days before graduation, a shooting takes place in the girls' bathroom
at a suburban Maryland high school.
The popular, pretty Kat is dead;
the athletic Josie was shot in the foot;
and the drama star and shooter, Perri,
is comatose after shooting herself in the head.
The three girls had been inseparable since third grade,
though Perri and Kat had fallen out the previous summer.
What happened? What led Perri to such an act?
Lippman builds a compelling story,
weaving together the aftermath and
the events leading up to the shooting.
She captures the grief and bemusement of the survivors,
each with their own selfish perspective,
as they struggle to find meaning in the shooting.
Her grasp of the mores and currents within
a contemporary high school seems pitch perfect to me.
I said in my review of No Good Deeds that
I thought Lippman was losing her enthusiasm for
her Tess Monaghan series.
This book has no such failing.
Highly recommended.