In this refreshingly original, 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.
On a Friday evening in September, five college friends arrive at an idyllic manor house in the Catskill Mountains for a bachelor party. At least, that’s the cover story. Jonathan is marrying Peter, that part is true. But this is not a celebratory reunion; it’s a staged intervention for Keith, a successful art dealer caught in a harrowing downward spiral of opioid addiction. His friends —Jonathan, Stephanie, Maeve and Derrick—have 48 hours to convince him to check into rehab or he will lose his business and much more. Still haunted by the mysterious death of another friend, Alice, during their senior year in college, the group refuses to stand by as Keith destroys himself; deep down, they hope that saving him might make up for having failed Alice. The friends blame themselves for her death. And, the truth is, maybe they should.
But Keith has unexpectedly brought along his most famous client, Finch, a charismatic trickster who senses the group’s fault lines and buried secrets and wastes no time exploiting them. By early Sunday morning, it’s all over—one friend is dead, another missing. The rest are paralyzed by fear. At least they seem to be. Astute and ambitious, Kaaterskill Detective Julia Sternbach is very good at her job, in spite of the demons from her past that the case has awakened. As Julia digs deeper, she begins to question if the real threat lies outside the mansion’s imposing walls, or within—and just how far these friends, forever bonded by love and loyalty, will go to protect one another, and hide the truth.
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