From “edge-of-your-seat suspense” (Booklist) author Kit Frick comes an insidious thriller about four estranged friends trapped in a powerful family’s deadly games at a luxe estate in the Italian countryside.
ATRIA/EMILY BESTLER BOOKS DECEMBER 2, 2025
♦ Named one of Fall’s Biggest Mystery Novels by Goodreads
♦ Named one of The 7 Best New Books To Read In December 2025 by Southern Living
♦ Named one of Parade Magazine‘s 25 Best Book Releases Coming in December, According to Librarians
♦ Named one of Town & Country’s 25 Must-Read Books of Winter 2026
♦ Named one of This Season’s Must-Read Mysteries and Thrillers by BookBub
Simon & Schuster Audio / listen on Audible
It’s been five years since heiress Clare Monroe tragically died on New Year’s Eve at her family’s opulent Italian palazzo. Since that time, her college friends have harbored a dark secret—their lies and betrayals led to Clare’s untimely death.
What happened that fateful night was a horrible accident, but Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David are guilty, nonetheless. And their desperate decision to conceal the truth destroyed their once-close bond.
Now, the estranged friends are each the recipient of an invitation from the Monroes to return to the lakeside palazzo for a long-overdue memorial for Clare. Accepting the Monroes’ invitation means playing with fire, but they can hardly refuse.
Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David have barely settled into their idyllic accommodations on Lake Como before someone at the memorial party begins targeting them. Haunted by little “gifts” left in their rooms, taunting notes, and the unshakable sense of being watched, it soon becomes clear that someone on the guest list knows the whole truth about the night Clare died—and the secrets her friends have been keeping. Nothing is as it seems at the palazzo on the lake, and under their tormentor’s vengeful gaze, their secrets—and their lives—are in danger.
Friends and Liars has all the ingredients of a delicious thriller—the lush setting of Italy’s Lake Como, a narrative that hopscotches between past and present, and a group of friends who hold secrets more closely than they do each other. And that ending is a chef’s kiss!
Friends and Liars is an atmospheric thrill ride with twists and turns that lead to a final truth that feels inevitable—but you won’t see it coming. It’s a gripping tale of secrets and shifting allegiances that kept me up way past my bedtime, turning pages.
Murder, mayhem, luxury accommodations? Sign me up!
Who wouldn’t accept the offer of a week, all expenses paid, in a Lake Como mansion?…Frick’s sophomore adult thriller (The Split, 2024) is another edgy page-turner, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Jeneva Rose.
A slickly satisfying ride. It’ll put a smile on thriller fans’ faces.
Friends and Liars achieves a delicious balance of emotional complication, layered deceptions, and consummate psychological drama. Lush with the accoutrements of affluence and charged with the machinations of aspiring creatives, the lavish setting near Bellagio distills to a locked-room mystery…Heart-racing suspense, compelling characters and relationships, and great danger add up to a highly satisfying puzzle of a novel, which saves surprises for its final pages.
Fun, fresh and jaw-droppingly moneyed, Friends and Liars is a sharply satisfying thriller perfect for fans of Ellery Lloyd and Jessa Maxwell.
Frick, best known for her young adult novels, makes Friends and Liars fresh with her energetic storytelling…Frick proved her prowess at adult mysteries in her outstanding 2024 novel, The Split, in which she played with different timelines and scenarios while exploring the complicated relationship of two sisters and their contrasting versions of events. Friends and Liars again proves she is adept at writing for different ages.
Cover reveal and exclusive excerpt on People.com
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