The antic ghost of Nabokov hovers over this buoyantly literate first novel, a murder mystery narrated by a
teenager enamored
of her own precocity but also in thrall to her father, an enigmatic itinerant professor, and to the
charismatic female teacher whose death is announced on the first page. Each of the 36 chapters is titled for a classic (by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Carlo Emilio Gadda), and the plot snakes ingeniously toward a revelation capped by a clever "final exam." All this is beguiling, but the most solid pleasures of this book originate in the freshness of Pessl''s voice and in the purity of her storytelling gift.