A bachelorette weekend takes an unexpected --- and violent --- turn in Lucy Clarke’s compulsively readable psychological thriller, ONE OF THE GIRLS.

Lexi Lowe is getting married. The gorgeous dancer turned yoga instructor is celebrating her impending nuptials toher fiancé, Ed, on a picturesque island in Greece. It’s supposed to be a relaxing trip abroad for the bride-to-be and her quintet of friends. But simmering tension and dark secrets threaten to make it a holiday to remember for all the wrong reasons.

"Elements of the novel suggest a standard-issue thriller: a group of so-called friends, an isolated location and an unexplained death. But Clarke elevates her story with a thoughtful examination of the intricacies of female friendship and women’s lives."

Lexi’s childhood friend, Bella, has organized the hen party, and she is determined to ignore the bride’s request for a low-key affair. As she sees it, “If you’re losing your best friend to marriage, you damn well better get a big party out of it.” Bella’s girlfriend, Fen, has arranged for the group to stay at her aunt’s swoon-worthy (and predictably remote) seaside villa, though she isn’t exactly thrilled to be returning to the island she last visited seven years earlier. The recently divorced Robyn, who made up part of a trio with Lexi and Bella in high school, has come as well, despite her concerns about being away from her 18-month-old son. Rounding out the group are Lexi’s new friend, Ana, and her socially awkward future sister-in-law, Eleanor, who fears she’s nothing more than a pity invite.

ONE OF THE GIRLS is told from the alternating perspectives of these six women, with each gradually revealing their darkest secrets and, in the case of some characters, their true motivations for going on the trip. Brief interludes narrated in a collective third person make it clear that by the time the vacation is over, someone will be dead. But who is the victim? And is it an accident or murder? Clarke patiently and skillfully layers on the tension until the book reaches a final, powerful crescendo that reveals the surprising answers to those questions.

Elements of the novel suggest a standard-issue thriller: a group of so-called friends, an isolated location and an unexplained death. But Clarke elevates her story with a thoughtful examination of the intricacies of female friendship and women’s lives. Lexi, Bella, Robyn, Ana, Fen and Eleanor are fully realized characters navigating believable challenges. They have hidden desires, deep regrets about past mistakes, and fears about making the wrong life choices. They are also wrestling with how to square their past selves with the people they’ve become. “She couldn’t help wondering why, in all those nights out, she’d never once…said, You know what, I don’t want this. I’m sad all the time. Something feels wrong inside me,” Lexi thinks as she reflects on her party-girl past.

Meanwhile, the complex group dynamics will likely ring true to many readers. Bella makes increasingly desperate attempts to assert her dominance (and claim Queen Bee status as Lexi’s best friend) by arranging surprise outings and supplying endless rounds of shots. Her sneering disdain for the less cool Eleanor and Robyn is a poor mask for her own insecurity. Eleanor tries to hide her discomfort (and her grief over a recent loss) by making herself useful. She’s the one in the kitchen “putting together mezes, shaking roasted almonds into a little dish, arranging stuffed vine leaves on a plate.” (Clarke’s descriptions of the various meals the women eat, along with those of the sun-dappled island, will surely inspire at least a few trips to the Aegean.) Unable to rediscover the old camaraderie she once had with Lexi and Bella, Robyn ends up bonding in surprising ways with Fen.

Lexi’s bachelorette weekend might end with someone in a body bag, but the most sustained violence in the book is verbal. Her characters know the ways that words can hurt. “He didn’t hit me. He didn’t rape me. He just used words,” one of the women recalls of a troubling encounter years earlier. “There was nowhere to put them, so I swallowed them whole.” But if words have the power to hurt, they also have the power to heal. “I’m a grown woman and I can say what the f*ck I like,” another character finally says in a phone call to her overbearing mother. Later, after a devastating revelation, a simple “thank you” ends a painful conversation in a way that suggests the possibility of moving forward.

ONE OF THE GIRLS ends on a similar note, as the members of the group discover that even after trauma, life has a way of continuing on.