Friends Like These: A Novel

Kimberly McCreight

Sep 2021 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

A GMA Buzz Pick 

“Kim McCreight's thrillers are smart, propulsive and impossible to put down." —Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me

In this relentlessly twisty literary thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight, a desperate intervention brings together a group of college friends 10 years after graduation—a reunion marked by lies, betrayal, and murder.

Coming Soon from Amblin Television

Six college friends have reunited for a glamorous weekend in the Catskills, a decade after a fatal accident that nearly destroyed them. Keith, once the ringleader of the group, was a handsome charmer on the fast track to success. Now he’s spiraling into addiction and stands at the edge of losing it all. This weekend is the last chance to save him.

But Keith, it turns out, is not the only one who needs saving.

By dawn on Sunday morning, a car has been found deep in the woods—one of the friends is dead, another is missing. When a local detective turns up to investigate, it’s clear the group is hiding something ominous.

Haunted by her sister’s murder years ago, Detective Julia Scutt has her own share of problems. But she’s a skilled detective, and knows a rehearsed story when she hears one. It is up to Julia to untangle a decade-long web of friendship, lies and betrayals to discover the truth. But first she needs to face her own past—including the secrets that could, in the end, offer the key to everything.

A story of unconditional love, obsession, and the sometimes-impossible choices we have to make in the name of loyalty, Friends Like These is a relentlessly twisty, roller-coaster of a novel. 

Ratings and reviews

A trip to the Catskills reuniting old school friends takes a sinister turn in Kimberly McCreight’s Friends Like These. As soon as the group arrives, they start discussing the real reason for their gathering: convincing one member to enter Rehab. Being in each other’s orbit brings back fond memories and the intimation of a tragedy that binds them all. Old dynamics, roles, and emotions are resurfaced-each of them carrying a burden of guilt in different ways. When two of the friends end up missing, the investigation unmasks a connection between the shared secret from long ago and the events unfolding at their reunion. McCreight ambitiously attempts to provide depth and histories for each of her many characters. What results is a novel that fails to be truly engaging. Friends Like These confuses the reader with its implausible revelations and concurrent plotlines, scaffolded on a plot that is neither strong nor interesting enough to overcome its deep flaws.

About the author

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Alex Awards; Where They Found Her; and The Outliers young adult trilogy. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.