Books with author Joan E. Goodman

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.

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.

Driven by fear that King Stephen will force her to marry the odious Sir Runcival, fifteen-year-old Lady Edith takes leave of Cheswick Manor. In the year 1144 she and her faithful nurse, Dame Joan, set forth on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In going, Edith hopes to close the door on her secret sorrows. Almost at once the pilgrims are waylaid in the King's Forest by Rhiannon, a wild girl who will play a vital role in Edith's life. As they travel from the abbeys and manors of England into unfamiliar lands, Edith finds herself learning and growing in unexpected ways. And though shrines and relics are not what she'd sought, the Holy City of Jerusalem has something wondrous and important to reveal to her.

They came from across Long Island Sound, Tories in search of plunder and ransom, bringing terror to Hope Wakeman's Connecticut home. The family is defenseless now that Father is away serving in General Washington's army. They can only watch as Noah Thomas and his crew strip the house of treasured belongings. And before she realizes what is happening, Hope finds herself a captive and a slave to Thomas's ill-tempered wife. Hope has one unlikely ally: Thomas's plucky mother is a different sort of Tory, one who sees beyond partisan divisions. Together the frail old woman and the girl set off in search of safety, on a journey that takes them from the tiny villages of Long Island to the bustling Tory stronghold of Manhattan. A map helps readers follow along on this journey, during which many astonishing things are revealed to Hope about herself and her companion.