Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a
luxurious Manhattan townhouse, a coveted spot at the elite Casden
prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note
left on her bed, her parents insists that their daughter would never take her
own life.
But Julia's enviable world was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to
excel at Casden was enormous. Abuse of prescription
anti-depressants and ADHD medication ran rampant among students; an unlabeled
bottle of pills in Julia's purse suggests she had succumbed to the trend. And a
search of Julia's computer reveals that in the days leading up to her death,
she was engaged in a dangerous game of cyberbullying
against an unlikely victim.
NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced the case is a suicide, but she knows
from personal experience that a loving family can be the last to accept the
truth. When the Whitmires use their power to force a
criminal investigation, Ellie's resistance causes trouble for her both at work
and in her personal life.
As she is pressured to pursue a case she doesn't believe in, she is pulled into
Julia's inner circle-an eclectic mix of overly precocious teenagers from
Manhattan's most privileged families as well as street kids she met in
Greenwich Village. But when the target of Julia's harassment continues to
receive death threats, Ellie is forced to acknowledge that Julia may have
learned the hard way that some secrets should never be told.