Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous
father, a luxurious Manhattan town house, 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 insist 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 antidepressants 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 from 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.
