Descent — Michael White

On a cold February night in 1909, the nephew of President Theodore Roosevelt tumbled out of a window at Harvard and fell five stories to his death. "An accident," swore the coroner; "a horrible tragedy," stated the family; "a sobering loss," announced the College - and everyone agreed. Everyone that is, except a certain Henry Wadsworth, reporter on the Harvard Crimson, and Groton chum of the corpse now lying in the Cambridge morgue. Henry sets out to discover the truth of his friend's death, and quickly finds that very little at Harvard is what it seems. Intrigue, scandal, and cover-up quickly become the stuff of murder, threatening not only Henry's life, but his very self-identity. Part fact, part historical fiction, part murder mystery, part coming-of-age story, Descent brings the Gilded Age at Harvard vividly and thrillingly alive.