Jeremy Kite is a murderer. He killed Toby Feynsham. Ask him why.
Then:
Jeremy Kite, a wide-eyed young scholarship student at Oxford, falls in with a bright, brilliant, wonderful group of friends who will come to be known as the Seven Wonders. Ella, the chemistry prodigy; mathematician Prue, his fellow scholarship student; trailblazing future doctor Aaron; athletic Hugo; sarcastic, spiky, strangely alluring literature student Nicky. And at their heart, Toby—wonderful, charming, generous, magnetic Toby, golden boy and future Marquess. But in their final term at Oxford, Toby is murdered, and the culprit escapes. But the thing is, there are only six people it could have been...
Now:
It's 1905, ten years later, and Jem is a poor clerk, living a spare, lonely life and chased from job to job by poison-pen letters accusing him of murder. One anonymous letter too many finally pushes him over the edge. Toby's death destroyed Oxford career, and if it's going to destroy the rest of his life too, he's determined to at least get answers. But excavating the truth may cost more than he's willing to pay.
An Edwardian dark academia murder mystery by KJ Charles.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- All Love Is Unrequited: During the Oxford years, Nicky and Prue are both in love with Toby, who isn't interested in either of them (but nevertheless still very much enjoys receiving their affections), while Jem is in love with Nicky. Nicky eventually gets over Toby in favor of Jem. Prue is not so lucky.
- Blackmail Backfire: Toby had incriminating material on everybody and used it to force them all to do what he wanted. But he took it a step too far when he tried to force Nicky to turn Aaron in for helping with abortions, using the threat of exposing his and Jem's sexuality—being forced into a position where he'd either destroy his friend or the boy he loved pushed Nicky over the edge and he stabbed Toby instead.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The more we learn about the Seven's career at Oxford, the clearer it becomes that although Toby is a delightful friend when he's happy, the very second his every whim isn't being catered to, he becomes not only verbally and emotionally abusive, but actively dangerous.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: It turns out that Nicky's cruelly flippant dismissal of his relationship with Jem as unimportant was a front in the hopes that downplaying the importance of their feelings for each other would make Toby would feel less threatened and get him to back down. Unfortunately it doesn't work, so the lovers in question get all the heartbreak but none of the saving.
- Chekhov's Gun: Toby uses an Italian stiletto to open his letters, and the others make fun of him for keeping an actual knife just to open his mail. No prizes for guessing what the murder weapon is.
- Deadpan Snarker: Nicky is always ready with a dry, cutting quip.
- Foreshadowing: Nicky gives Jem a long explanation of how the rules of inheritance and Toby's place in the line of succession work, which boils down to this: Toby isn't the heir to the Marquessate, he's the heir presumptive, a small but important difference. As long as his uncle is alive and physically capable of siring a son, Toby could in theory be put aside. However, said uncle is a drunken old widower in terrible health, so everyone, particularly Toby, treats it as a done deal. Unfortunately for Toby, that drunken old widower can still get it up, and halfway through the group's last year of Oxford, does indeed produce a baby boy by his hastily-wed second wife. Toby handles the loss of the inheritance he regarded as already his...poorly.
- Hypocrite: A pissed-off Jem points out that people who are happy to accept that it's right for your parentage to dictate your station in life have no business complaining when suddenly that system puts them on the outs. That's how the rules work, and since those rules were apparently just fine before, whining now is poor form. Toby and his baby cousin did exactly the same amount of work to deserve inheriting the Marquessate—being born—so it's pretty rich for Toby to act like it's unfair.
- It's All About Me: Everyone acknowledges that Toby got testy when he wasn't the center of attention—or rather, adoration. He was supportive and loving of his fellow Wonders...but only as long as they were never more wondrous than him.Ella: He had to be the main character, or he'd spoil the play.
- Literal Metaphor: Ella's not just being poetical when she talks about her brother's need to be the main character. Toby was the one who got Nicky drunk off his ass the night of their college production of Cymbeline—he was jealous Nicky got a better part than him.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Everyone knew that Aaron and Ella were into each other in college, but as Ella is the very white granddaughter of a Marquess, and Aaron is Black and not gentry, there were significant obstacles to their relationship even before the murder and they parted ways. Jem later discovers they fully intended to marry and tell racist society to go to hell, but Toby discovered Aaron was secretly using his medical training to help with abortions—still illegal at the time—and blackmailed him to break it off.
- Maybe Ever After: Ella and Aaron have been pining after each other from afar for ten years, but the secrets and uncertainty about who killed Toby have kept them apart. After Jem reveals the truth to them at the end, it's suggested they'll finally be able to get over their issues and get together.
- New Old Flame: Nicky and Jem's college romance went down in flames, but when Jem returns to Oxford to investigate, they find themselves drawn to each other all over again, despite Jem's suspicion that Nicky might be the murderer. Nicky is the murderer, but he had an excellent reason, and simply being sure of the truth allows Jem to accept that and admit to himself that he's still in love with Nicky. They Do.
- Revealing Cover Up: Hugo's career is undergoing massive upheaval, and he should have far more important things to worry about than Jem's investigation into a decade-old murder, no matter how scandalous it was at the time. So the fact he rushes down to Oxford to first try to talk Jem out of investigating, then to discredit him as crazy, tips Jem off that something is shady here, because otherwise there's no way on earth this should even be close to the top of the priority list. Hugo is not the murderer, but he did rape Prue, and he rightfully fears Jem's investigation will uncover his crime along with the identity of Toby's killer. More subtly, his increasingly violent attempts to keep it secret put the lie to his claim that it was actually consensual sex—if no crime was committed, Hugo, then why are you trying to kill Jem to cover it up?
- Who Murdered the Asshole: The good news is that Jem's list of suspects is only five people long, as the door to Toby's room was jammed in a way only one of the Seven knew how to do, and he of course knows it wasn't him. The bad news is that in 1895 Toby systematically and thoroughly attacked every one of them, sometimes literally, in the most hurtful and destructive way possible...and not one of them has a good alibi.
