If We Were Villains by M L Rio

Publisher's Review 'Enter the players. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.Ten years before: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But in their fourth and final year, the balance of power begins to shift, good-natured rivalries turned ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' world of make believe. In this tale of loyalty and betrayal, madness and ecstasy, the players must choose what roles to play before the curtain falls.