At the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Oliver Marks, one of the students, who is being released from prison for a crime that we aren’t clear whether he committed or not. All is well until their typical casting gets flipped on its head, forever changing the power dynamics of the group. Rio is a novel that centres around a group of fourth-year theatre students at a prestigious university program in Illinois. Publisher: Titan Books Ltd ISBN: 9781785656477 Number of pages: 400 Dimensions: 198 x 130 mm You may also be interested in.Content warning: murder, homophobia, mentions of sexual assault, suicide, physical abuse, drug abuse Beautifully written with a thrilling plot, it is a story of friendship, passion and what happens when driving passion becomes dangerous obsession. Structured in scenes and acts and peppered with Shakespearean quotes and allusions the novel has the driving momentum of a classic tragedy. Like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, If We Were Villains draws readers into a close-knit, exclusive coterie and watches as rivalry and obsession cause alliances to fracture - with explosive results. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless. When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. But when the teachers change up the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into life. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened ten years ago.Īs a young actor studying Shakespeare at an elite arts conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same roles onstage and off - villain, hero, tyrant, temptress - though Oliver felt doomed to always be a secondary character in someone else's story. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends - a murder he may or may not have committed. Not knowing who, not knowing how, not knowing why. I lean forward on my elbows, so my face is only a few inches from his, so he hears every word when I lower my voice. Waterstones Thriller of the Month for May 2018

If we were villains about