Mystery Readers Group: Dark Academia

Let’s explore the shadowy (mysterious) side of academia!
Menlo Park Library’s Mystery Readers Group is a different kind of book group: rather than all reading the same book, we share our reading of different books surrounding a particular theme: Dark Academia, for instance.
This subgenre is full of twisty mysteries that take place in elite boarding schools, universities, libraries, or museums. Dark Academia mysteries are rife with strange (and sometimes magical) happenings, unsolved murders, secret societies, and gothic vibes.
Mystified as to where to start? Allow us to present—
A Few Leads:
If We Were Villains, by M.L. Rio: The seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life.
The Maidens, by Alex Michaelides: A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Edward Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society known as The Maidens. When one member is found murdered, Fosca is implicated.
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey: When a gruesome murder takes place at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets.
Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo: Part murder mystery and part supernatural horror. Alex, a woman who sees ghosts, is recruited to monitor the activities of Yale University's secret societies. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
The Secret Place, by Tana French: The investigation into the murder of a teenage boy at a girls’ boarding school is reopened when someone posts an anonymous message: I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM. The Dublin Murder Squad learns that the underworld of teenage girls can be more mysterious and dangerous than they had imagined.
So many possibilities—and that’s just a starting point! Check out any Dark Academia mystery you like, and join us online to exchange book recommendations and discover new favorites with fellow mystery lovers.
Menlo Park’s Mystery Readers Group meets online on the third Tuesday of each month.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 | 06:00 PM - 07:15 PM