Book Review – Oxford Blood by Rachael Davis-Featherstone
Oxford Blood by Rachael Davis-Featherstone
Mystery and Thrillers | Young adult | 352 pages
Published on 28 August 2025 by Walker
Synopsis
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Ace of Spades in this YA thriller where a girl has to navigate the cutthroat world of academia to uncover the truth behind her best friend’s death.
Love, Lies, Legacy... High-achieving state-school pupil Eva has one dream – reading English at Oxford. If she gets in, not only will she receive a world-class education at an elite university, but she will be fulfilling the dreams of her mother and gain some independence from her father, the overprotective Inspector Dawkins.
At the same school, Eva’s best-friend George is also hoping to go to Oxford. The attraction between him and Eva is undeniable, but they’ve agreed to put any romance on hold until their places at Oxford are secured. Eva cannot be distracted from her goal – although when they are both invited for interview week, their future together feels oh-so close.
Until George shows up dead.
The police rule his death an accident, but the behaviour of some of the other interview candidates has Eva suspecting foul play. When a shocking secret about George is revealed, Eva finds suspicion falling on her. What was meant to be one of the most important weeks of her life is fast turning into a nightmare.
All eyes are now on Eva, including the anonymous posters behind OxSlay, a gossipy social media forum exclusively for Oxford students. But amongst the conspiracy theories, lurk hidden clues. Could they help Eva clear her name – and catch the killer?
My rating:
Review
I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
It took me a while to get into this book, I’m not going to lie. At first, it definitely has to spend a good while setting the scene of not only Oxford, but the different relationships. However, as soon as the action kicked in it quickly became addictive.
This book also had a good way to have supportive adults and parents but remove them from the picture, something often not done well in YA mystery!
I really liked how it twisted and turned throughout and while I did think of the killer as a main suspect I also liked the misdirects and I was more focused on another character for a bit. It felt pretty tightly plotted in the back half and definitely made it a book I would recommend!
This also has the fun of dealing with the realities of a massive, elite (and snobby!) university set in town – the twin vs gown elements could possibly have gone a little harder but honestly as someone who has visited Oxford a lot, knows people who both live there or attended the uni, and is aware of the inherent class issues around it, that was good to see reflected. The book also deals with systemic and institutional racism throughout and that’s again not something I think we see enough of, both in ya mysteries but also in challenging places like Oxford.
If you like YA mystery, this is one that offers a little more depth as well as being a good romp, it’s just a bit slow to get going. 3.75 stars.
Buy Oxford Blood by Rachael Davis-Featherstone from Waterstones or Blackwells.
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