I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai

We know from Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers that she can write vivid characters, but this book is more plot-driven.  It’s basically a murder mystery that takes place twenty years after the actual murder.  Seventeen-year-old Thalia died in her prep school’s swimming pool in what was initially considered an accident.  By the time the authorities realized that she was murdered, the crime scene had been completely contaminated.  Now, our narrator, Bodie Kane, Thalia’s former roommate, is teaching a podcast seminar at Granby, the prep school she and Thalia attended, and one of Bodie’s students wants to investigate Thalia’s death as her podcast project.  Granby’s athletic trainer, Omar, has been serving time for the murder, but the evidence for his conviction now seems dodgy.  The “you” in this book is Denny Bloch, the music teacher at Granby, who increasingly becomes Bodie’s prime suspect, as more and more details emerge regarding Thalia’s relationship with him.  This book was a slow starter for me, but I got more into it as the story progressed and more and more clues were revealed.  Also, the author takes some detours that I found to be unnecessary distractions, particularly with regard to the past behavior of Bodie’s soon-to-be ex-husband.  Ultimately, I pegged the wrong person for the murder, meaning that I didn’t really have a clue.