The Resemblance by Lauren Nossett review - This is a slick campus murder mystery that keeps you guessing to the end

The Resemblance begins with Detective Marlitt Kaplan hearing a crash from her mother's office - a German Professor at the University of Georgia. Marlitt arrives at the scene of a hit-and-run and discovers the body of student and fraternity brother, Jay Kemp. Passers-by say the Mercedes that hit him sped up when it hit him, and the driver looked identical to him. Without the overly-protective oversite of her police chief, Truman, Marlitt picks up the case.

Marlitt and her easy-going partner Teddy enter Jay's world within the red-bricked confines of his old fraternity house - Kappa Phi Omicron. They're welcomed by the poster boy of 'Kappa-Phi', their president Tripp Holmes. Loved by all, with improving academic grades, Jay seemed to have it all. Soon enough, cracks in this image emerge. A missing laptop, ambiguous final messages on his phone, and conflicting accounts of his whereabouts the weekend before he died is enough evidence to keep digging deeper into 'the brotherhood'.

Marlitt's investigation is fuelled by the lingering rage of trauma left from the avoidable fraternity-related death of a close friend years earlier. Marlitt's increasing recklessness throughout the novel is a direct result from the fury of her loss. She's heard the all-too-common stories of hazing gone wrong and the dangers for young women in these boozed-up environments.

Her colleagues seem set on sweeping the incident under the rug. Truman laments Marlitt for not treading carefully around Kap-O's. Her younger colleague Oliver is sympathetic to the fraternity cause, and doubts there is motive behind the hit-and-run. Teddy backs her, but can't prevent Truman and Oliver from questioning Marlitt's objectivity on the case.

After a shocking turn of events halfway through the novel, Marlitt is taken off the case and left to reflect on her own demons.

The narrative structure of The Resemblance mirrors the discreet darkness under the glossy coat of university life. Marlitt and Teddy initially encounter the clean exteriors of academic achievement and respectability of the fraternity and university. As the novel progresses, they discover a world of barbaric hazing rituals and coverups from the university's elite.

Some of Nossett's characters are instantly recognisable. The sorority "it-girl", the glum and snobby protected son of the University President, and the overly protective police chief. From a pessimistic view, these are stock characters. However, they reflect the invisible hands of outdated institutions which degrade individuals into rigid boxes. In a rather memorable scene, the 'frat-bros' become indistinguishable as they wear identical Guy Fawkes masks at a meeting to protect their anonymity. As the eponymous title of the novel suggests, toxic masculinity breaks apart the dignity and individuality of young men.

A remarkable feature of the novel is how Nossett balances the driving mystery of Jay's murder with its broader themes. The Resemblance fits nicely into the crime-thriller genre. While the mystery aspect of the novel isn't ground-breaking, it is, without a doubt, compelling. The last 100 pages are filled with revelations that unfold right into the epilogue.

Through Marlitt's narration, the story comes to life. Cynical and fearless, Marlitt is a brilliantly written character. Nossett does not shy away from the continuous traumatic effects that institutional betrayal has on an individual's psyche. Marlitt's anger originates from the frustration of seeking justice from a system that perpetually pats the backs of wrongdoers.

At times, she is the only character to see past the glossy rhetoric of "brotherhood" and "loyalty" which the fraternities use to shield themselves against criticism.

Some of the depictions of fraternity and university life comes across as fantastical. There are intricate and widespread cheating syndicates and hazing rituals that seem like they came straight from a Saw movie.

Yet, much like Margaret Atwood's dystopian The Handmaid's Tale, nothing in the novel is made up purely from the imagination. Nossett's portrayal of campus life is a pastiche of everything that can - and has - one wrong.

The novel also resembles campus life in our own backyard. Every so often, a story will break into the news cycle. A college student being hospitalised after drinking an initiation cocktail including shampoo and dog poo. The annual sobering statistics of sexual assault on campus.

Much like Marlitt, Australian students must also face the fact that privilege can protect perpetrators while survivors live with the consequences.