Party Girls Die in Pearls: An Oxford Girl Mystery

It's October 1985, and Ursula Flowerbutton is a "fresher," an 18-year-old first-term student at Christminster College, Oxford. She wants to be a reporter for the student newspaper but knows that freshers are seldom selected. Yet she gets her scoop when she discovers the body of Lady India Brattenbury, this year's It girl, the day after a raucous party. With the help of American exchange student Nancy Feingold, Ursula asks questions of posh students, attends soirees, and even investigates her tutor. Before long, everyone, including the killer, knows she is trying to find the culprit. Incorporating footnotes that explain Oxford University life and 1980s fashion and culture, Sykes (Bergdorf Blondes) takes readers into an elite educational environment where the students are pretentious, fond of parties and clothes, and, in most cases, only concerned with themselves. Ursula is the only appealing, down-to-earth character.