The Finishing School

by Joanna Goodman

Overview

In this suspenseful, provocative novel of friendship, secrets, and deceit, a successful writer returns to her elite Swiss boarding school to get to the bottom of a tragic accident that took place while she was a student twenty years earlier.

How far would you go to uncover the truth?

One spring night in 1998 the beautiful Cressida Strauss plunges from a fourth-floor balcony at the Lycée Internationale Suisse with catastrophic consequences. Loath to draw negative publicity to the school, a bastion of European wealth and glamour, officials quickly dismiss the incident as an accident, but questions remain: Was it a suicide attempt? Or was Cressida pushed? It was no secret that she had a selfish streak and had earned as many enemies as allies in her tenure at the school. For her best friend, scholarship student Kersti Kuusk, the lingering questions surrounding Cressida's fall continue to nag long after she leaves the Lycée.

Kersti marries and becomes a bestselling writer, but never stops wondering about Cressida's obsession with the Helvetian Society—a secret club banned years before their arrival at the school—and a pair of its members who were expelled. When Kersti is invited as a guest to the Lycée's 100th Anniversary, she begins probing the cover-up, unearthing a frightening underbelly of lies and abuse at the prestigious establishment. And in one portentous moment, Kersti makes a decision that will connect her to Cressida forever and raise the stakes dangerously high in her own desire to solve the mystery and redeem her past.

An unputdownable read as clever as it is compelling, The Finishing School offers a riveting glimpse into a privileged, rarefied world in which nothing is as it appears.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062465597
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	360,353
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Joanna Goodman is the author of the bestselling novels The Forgotten Daughter, The Home for Unwanted Girls,and The Finishing School. Originally from Montreal, she now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Editorial Reviews

The Finishing School drops all the right names, but it’s far from an exercise in snobbery. Its subjects are young love and lust, privilege and striving, and faculty-student relations that redefine that term. There’s a missing ledger and a dark secret, and the story is as tasty as braised lamb shanks and as easy to swallow as a good Riesling — add this to your stack of beach reads.” — Head Butler

“Suspenseful.... If your guilty-pleasure reads include elite boarding schools, secret societies, murder, and scandal, this one’s for you.” — Kirkus

“The Finishing School pulls back the curtain to expose a fascinating world of desire, betrayal, and dangerous secrets.” — Lou Berney, Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone

“The Finishing School plunges the reader headfirst into a fast-paced, nail-biting mystery that also manages to explore friendship, love, adolescence, family and motherhood. By the time you reach the unexpected ending, you’ll practically be gasping for air.” — Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Trouble with Lexie

“Craftily depicts a mystery hidden for decades under the veil of boarding-school tradition and secret societies…. Goodman unravels a web of lies intertwining the well-developed characters that cross Kersti’s path.” — Booklist

“Joanna Goodman clearly knows her way around the rarefied world of the rich and famous. Every page of this compelling novel resonates with authenticity, and is filled with suspense—The Finishing School will keep readers up late at night.” — Roberta Rich, author of The Midwife of Venice

“A compelling tale of horrific teenage secrets inside the walls of an elite school in Switzerland, unearthed with verve and sly irony. The truth is cold and slippery as ice as Goodman draws us into the darkness beneath the glittering surface of lakes and snowcapped mountains, and of privilege itself.” — Deborah Lawrenson, author of 300 Days of Sun

“Both a coming-of-age-story and a literary mystery but ultimately culminating in an addictive read full of skillfully conveyed characters.” — Library Journal

“Rich and intriguing, The Finishing School is a page-turner of the best sort—a novel that dusts the polish off of prestige and leaves you with the startling truth.” — Joy Calloway, author of The Fifth Avenue Artists Society and Secret Sisters

“In The Finishing School, secrets are exposed and lies revealed when Kersti Kuusk is pulled back to Geneva, the site of her boarding school roommate’s tragic accident decades before. The hidden rot she discovers at the heart of this seemingly golden world makes for a shocking, satisfying read.” — Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, author of Bittersweet and June

“Enthralling.... Both a compelling look into an exclusive world and a wise and heartbreaking story of a friendship and misplaced passion.... The book is addictive because of the mystery it explores.... Also notable is the deftness with which Goodman presents the complicated, passionate nature of friendships during formative years.” — Globe and Mail, Canada

From the Publisher

In The Finishing School, secrets are exposed and lies revealed when Kersti Kuusk is pulled back to Geneva, the site of her boarding school roommate’s tragic accident decades before. The hidden rot she discovers at the heart of this seemingly golden world makes for a shocking, satisfying read.

Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

The Finishing School drops all the right names, but it’s far from an exercise in snobbery. Its subjects are young love and lust, privilege and striving, and faculty-student relations that redefine that term. There’s a missing ledger and a dark secret, and the story is as tasty as braised lamb shanks and as easy to swallow as a good Riesling — add this to your stack of beach reads.

Head Butler

Craftily depicts a mystery hidden for decades under the veil of boarding-school tradition and secret societies…. Goodman unravels a web of lies intertwining the well-developed characters that cross Kersti’s path.

Booklist

The Finishing School pulls back the curtain to expose a fascinating world of desire, betrayal, and dangerous secrets.

Lou Berney

A compelling tale of horrific teenage secrets inside the walls of an elite school in Switzerland, unearthed with verve and sly irony. The truth is cold and slippery as ice as Goodman draws us into the darkness beneath the glittering surface of lakes and snowcapped mountains, and of privilege itself.

Deborah Lawrenson

Rich and intriguing, The Finishing School is a page-turner of the best sort—a novel that dusts the polish off of prestige and leaves you with the startling truth.

Joy Calloway

The Finishing School plunges the reader headfirst into a fast-paced, nail-biting mystery that also manages to explore friendship, love, adolescence, family and motherhood. By the time you reach the unexpected ending, you’ll practically be gasping for air.

Jessica Anya Blau

Joanna Goodman clearly knows her way around the rarefied world of the rich and famous. Every page of this compelling novel resonates with authenticity, and is filled with suspense—The Finishing School will keep readers up late at night.

Roberta Rich

Craftily depicts a mystery hidden for decades under the veil of boarding-school tradition and secret societies…. Goodman unravels a web of lies intertwining the well-developed characters that cross Kersti’s path.

Booklist

Enthralling.... Both a compelling look into an exclusive world and a wise and heartbreaking story of a friendship and misplaced passion.... The book is addictive because of the mystery it explores.... Also notable is the deftness with which Goodman presents the complicated, passionate nature of friendships during formative years.

Globe and Mail

Praise for YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU: “Goodman’s examination of the bond of family and her strong characters will resonate with many readers.

Booklist on YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU

Praise for You Made Me Love You: “Goodman’s examination of the bond of family and her strong characters will resonate with many readers.

Booklist on You Made Me Love You

You Made Me Love You is full of humour, wisdom, and hope. Joanna Goodman has a wonderful ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for the nuances of life.

Joy Fielding

03/15/2017
On the surface Kersti Kuusk is doing well, making a living as a novelist and living in Toronto with her husband, Jay. Beyond her successful facade, she's in her mid-30s, struggling with infertility, and trying to cope with long-held insecurities. Plus she's still haunted by her best friend's mysterious fall from a fourth-floor balcony at their prestigious Swiss boarding school years ago. Then a letter arrives inviting her to speak at the school's 100th anniversary celebration, followed by a letter from her dying former schoolmate Lille, which questions Cressida's "accidental" fall. The letters catapult Kersti on a quest to track down her classmates and teachers who might be more forthcoming after all these years. As she digs deeper, everything indicates that the ledgers of the Helvetian Society, a secret but long-banned club at the school, hold the answers. The shocking truths that Kersti eventually uncovers lead her to a dangerous confrontation and some devastating realizations. VERDICT Goodman's (You Made Me Love You; Harmony) novel alternates between the present and the 1990s, giving it the feel of both a coming-of-age-story and a literary mystery but ultimately culminating in an addictive read full of skillfully conveyed characters. [See Prepub Alert, 10/31/16.]—Melissa DeWild, BookOps, New York P.L.

Library Journal

2017-01-23
A writer haunted by the secrets of her boarding school days determines to find out the truth behind a suspicious accident in Goodman's (Harmony, 2007, etc.) suspenseful novel.As a teenager, Kersti attended a swanky Swiss boarding school where she made close friends with a group of wealthy girls. Her closest confidante, her glamorous roommate, Cressida, had a terrible accident a few months before graduation, and Kersti left, hoping to put everything behind her and move on with her life. Eighteen years later, she has become a successful novelist but is unable to have a child, and her marriage is under terrific strain. When she receives an invitation from the Lycée to return for the school's hundred-year celebration and speak as a distinguished alumna, she begins to sift through stories of the past, realizing, with the help of a mysterious letter from an old friend, that there are still too many unanswered questions surrounding Cressida's accident. Goodman intercuts the story of Kersti's years at the Lycée with her investigations and decisions of the present day, allowing the main characters to deepen and take on more form as the novel progresses. Secondary characters are granted little development, but Kersti herself, daughter of Estonian immigrants and profoundly lonely within her family, is a fetching heroine despite her one-note, obsessive desire for a baby. Some of the plot twists are too convenient, and some too expected, but there is enough subterfuge to drive the story to the final answers and confrontation—and to achieve surprise. If your guilty-pleasure reads include elite boarding schools, secret societies, murder, and scandal, this one's for you.

Kirkus Reviews