Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

James is a new writer and she wrote a great debut novel. It has a psychological suspense flavor to it. Katherine is the main character. Her story is woven throughout the book so that we just get bits and pieces until it all comes together at the end. Because of a tragedy she has chosen to leave her parents and live with her aunt in a new city and she also changes her last name to protect her privacy. The first day at school she meets Alice and they seem to hit it off. Alice seems a bit unstable mentally - at least to the reader if not to Katherine! Katherine and Robbie (Alice's boyfriend) are constantly being manipulated by Alice, but neither has the will to distance themselves from her. The story changes from the present to the past to the future and back again. It kept my interest from the beginning to the end.