THE LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES

History eerily repeats itself in this dark tale set in a private school for girls in remote upstate New York. Single mother Jane Hudson returns to teach Latin despite the fact that both her roommates died as suicides while she was a student there. Now girls are dying again. There's a lot for a reader to contend with here--two storylines, one in the present tense and one in the past; a gaggle of female voices; and descriptions of the lake, which is almost a character in itself. Vivienne Benesch handles these challenges with ease and makes of the many Latin quotes a language not dead at all. J.G.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]