The Mortons

De: Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier

Meet the Mortons: In this family, murder is currency - and business is booming.

The Mortons are a modern-day, old-money dynasty with impeccable taste, from their exquisitely crafted cocktails to their expertly tailored vintage garments. They are also stone-cold killers. For the Mortons, homicide is heritage.

They, along with the other crime families, send their progeny to Helshire College, where legacy students learn to exercise control over their wealthy peers. Jessica Morton has always excelled at Helshire, secure in her knowledge that she is the prodigy of her generation. Now, having committed her first kill, it should be Jessica's moment, her honor.

But that kill will cut more ways than one, unknotting a series of revelations spanning the Mortons' country estate, the New York City art world, and Helshire itself.

What happens to Jessica when all of her dearly held certainties face the axe?

Sharp and hypnotic, The Mortons is an epic novel of alliances and power, loyalty and kinship, and the consequences of ruthless ambition.

'The Mortons is a tour de force: witty, thrilling and deliciously cruel. Enjoy it with a stiff cocktail.' Lev Grossman

'The Mortons are the most spectacularly unhinged crime family ever imagined. Their story hurtled along so fast and surprised me so often I was shocked to realize I'd been contemplating and recalibrating my moral compass as I read, but so I had. An absolute delight.' E. Lockhart