Publishers Weekly
02/27/2017
The premise of Rio’s debut novel is intriguing: it’s a murder mystery set at a Illinois college specializing in Shakespeare studies, led by a man with the coincidentally appropriate name of Holinshed. The story follows a group of college students’ passions, jealousies, and insecurities, which, over time, escalate to murder. Rio makes effective use of her framing device—a prologue set in 2007 introduces one of the students, Oliver Marks, who is about to be released on parole from prison after a decade behind bars for murder. The homicide detective who handled the case, Joseph Colborne, is about to retire from the force and attempts to convince Oliver to finally come clean about what really happened by promising him that anything he reveals will be off the record. Flashbacks disclose what led up to the death of one of the students in 1997 and the tensions Oliver observed among his classmates before and after. Though the plot twists may not surprise some readers, this is a solid mystery that keeps the pages turning. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"Nerdily (and winningly) in love with Shakespeare...Readable, smart.”
—New York Times Book Review
"Pulls the reader in from the first page...A well-written and gripping ode to the stage...A fascinating, unorthodox take on rivalry, friendship, and truth, IF WE WERE VILLAINS will draw readers in and leave them pondering the weight of our biggest actions and their consequences."
—Mystery Scene
"Echoing such college-set novels as Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and mixing in enough Shakespearean theater to qualify readers for the stage, Rio’s debut mystery is an engrossing ride…Rio crafts an intricate story about friendship, love, and betrayal. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction by authors such as Tartt or Emily St. John Mandel.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“Bloody, melodramatic, suspenseful debut… This novel about obsession at the conservatory will thoroughly obsess you.”
—Kirkus, starred review
"This is a rare and extraordinary novel: a vivid rendering of the closed world of a conservatory education, a tender and harrowing exploration of friendship, and a genuinely breathtaking literary thriller. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and can’t wait to read what M. L. Rio writes next."
—Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Station Eleven
“Much like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, M. L. Rio’s sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession. Both comic and tragic, this novel asks what people are willing to sacrifice in the name of ambition. Expertly plotted, beautifully written, If We Were Villains will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments.”
—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest
“If We Were Villains is a whip-smart, chilling tale of a group of Shakespeare students who are, as the Bard put it, "a little more than kin, and less than kind" — especially after one of their own meets a horrific fate. Full of friendship, betrayal, and passionate devotion, this is a page-turning literary thriller whose final, shocking twist you won't soon forget.”
—Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and June
“A tale worthy of the Bard himself…ending in one final, astonishing twist. Recommended for readers with refined literary tastes, and those looking for ‘something like’ Donna Tartt.”
—Booklist
“Intriguing…a solid mystery that keeps the pages turning.”
—Publishers Weekly
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-02-05
For a clique of aspiring Shakespearean actors at an elite arts academy, the line between performance and reality dissolves, with disastrous results.In the prologue to this bloody, melodramatic, suspenseful debut novel, we meet former drama student Oliver Marks, now finishing up a 10-year prison sentence. He is visited by the cop who brought him to justice on the eve of his retirement, asking if Marks will finally tell him the truth of what happened that night at Dellecher Classical Conservatory. He agrees to do so after his upcoming release, on the condition that there are no repercussions for revealing his secrets. And so he begins. "Enter the players. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us…surrounded by words and books and poetry, all the fierce passions of the world bound in leather and vellum." They are in their fourth year, the kings and queens of the campus, dividing among them all the best roles in the productions of Macbeth and Julius Caesar planned for that fall. But as the semester progresses it becomes clear that just as Shakespeare's language has taken over their speech—they address each other constantly in quotes from the poetry and bits of repartee from the plays—his characters have taken over their souls, and the power struggles, jealousies, and murderous rages that fill the dramas have crossed into their real lives. "I have ransacked Shakespeare's entire oeuvre with giddy abandon," Rio confesses in her Author's Note, managing to cleverly weave a whole new story from the poetry and plots of Macbeth, Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear. "Do you blame Shakespeare for any of it?" the retired detective asks the released convict. "I blame him for all of it," the narrator replies. This novel about obsession at the conservatory will thoroughly obsess you.
