Peter Miles Has to Die: A Novel

by Katie Collom

Overview

“What happens when three women decide to avenge the murder of their best friend? In her riveting debut, Katie Collum explores what we owe the ones we love, and how ordinary life can change in an instant. I couldn’t put this thriller down.”—Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters

Peter Miles has to die. And Dylan Darcy, Priya Shah, and Isabel Guerrero—a bartender, a nurse, and a student—have to be the ones to kill him. As they see it, this local cop deserves death for murdering their best friend and getting away with it. All they need to do to pull off the perfect crime is stick to their carefully prepared plan.

So that’s exactly what they do. Murder, it turns out, is surprisingly easy when you’re fueled by revenge. What comes after is the hard part.

As the dry Texas heat gives way to cooler weather, their blazing rage is replaced by a chill fear. Because there’s a fallout that comes from settling the score against someone like Peter, and it could cost them more than they’ve bargained for. When the lead investigator on the case starts sniffing around for a cop killer, the three friends are not feeling as confident as they did on that fateful night. And when they start receiving death threats, it weakens their resolve even further . . . but it’s too little too late.

What they don’t realize is that this detective has her own reasons for wanting to get to the bottom of Peter’s murder. Reasons that don’t involve them at all. The investigation ramps up, and so does the pressure, leaving Dylan, Priya, and Isabel to wonder if ending his life may end up costing them theirs.

As the guilt of what they’ve done settles in their bones, they realize there’s no going back. Someone is going to have to take the fall.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593974612
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/12/2025
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.46(w) x 9.42(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

Katie Collom grew up in Mazatlán, Mexico, and is a lifelong expat and world traveler. She spent four years in Texas and has carried a piece of it with her ever since. Currently, she resides in York, England, with her husband and three cats.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

DYLAN

There are events in life that mark you and events in life that make you.

Beck’s death had marked Dylan. She’d carried it like a burden the past several months, a ghost taking up a permanent lease in her mind. She thought about Beck more now than when she’d been alive. At home, at the grocery store, even during her busiest shifts at the bar, it was impossible for Dylan to exorcize the memories of her dead friend.

She’d been coping. Furious, but coming to terms with it.

Until he slid onto the barstool across from her that Thursday night.

“Hi there, gorgeous,” he said.

For a moment Dylan froze, her eyes locked on him. Then the pint glass she was holding slipped from her fingers and shattered around the toes of her Doc Martens 1461s.

“F***,” Dylan said, but not because of the broken glass.

“Oh, shit!” He pressed his fist to his mouth. His eyes were round in mock shock. “Didn’t mean to make you nervous.”

Lowering his hand to the bar, he grinned. A swarm of goosebumps crawled up Dylan’s back.

If he knew who she was, he didn’t show it. Was she not worth remembering? Of course, the first and last time they’d met had been at Beck’s New Year’s party. That was nearly a year ago. It’d been dark, he’d been drunk, and they’d spent less than two minutes together. Since then, Dylan had also let her hair grow longer and dyed it from blond to black.

He didn’t remember who she was. And now, here he was, sitting on a stool at the bar where she worked, looking at Dylan like she owed him something.

“I’ll be right back,” she said.

Carefully stepping around the broken glass, she left the bar and pushed her way through the swinging door that led to the back. The smell of cooking oil spilled from the kitchen at the end of the hall. She stepped into her manager’s tiny office. Jason rarely used it, preferring instead his regular booth out front where the beer taps were within arm’s reach, and he could make sure she wasn’t skimming from the till or drinking on the job herself.

Hand trembling, she brought the phone to her ear. Her fingers hovered over the keypad. Who should she call? Isabel? Priya? Both?

She shifted her gaze to the clock over the filing cabinet. It was just after seven. Isabel would be home by now, her classes done for the day. Closing her eyes, Dylan tried to remember if Priya worked evening shifts at the hospital on Thursdays.

But what would she say? That their best friend’s killer had just walked into Aces of Spades?

Her mind raced, Beck’s ghost elbowing out every other thought, screaming at her: Do something. Beck had always said the three of them—Dylan, Priya, and Isabel—were like her sisters. They were supposed to have one another’s backs. But they’d failed Beck. Dylan most of all.

Slowly, she lowered the receiver back into place. It wouldn’t do any good to call either of them. Not now. She glanced at the calendar tacked to the wall over the desk. Above SEPTEMBER 1993, two impossibly small kittens were asleep inside a pair of coffee mugs. Dylan grabbed a red pen from the pencil cup and drew three angry circles around that day’s date: September 2.

A small, hard walnut of rage formed in her as she left the office, grabbed a broom and dustpan from the storage closet, and headed back to the front bar.

He hadn’t moved.

“Be with you in a sec,” she said, keeping her tone neutral and eyes on the shattered glass as she swept it up.

“That’s fine, gorgeous. You take your time.”

Dylan’s fist tightened around the broom handle at the indulgence in his tone. As if he were doing her a favor.

She dumped the glass in the trash and returned the broom and dustpan to the closet. As she stepped out into the front again, Dylan pulled her damp gray shirt away from her lower back. Despite the ancient AC unit’s best efforts, the heat had snuck in to wrap its fleshy arms around the room. That was September in the Texas Panhandle: eager for fall, reluctant to let summer go.

For once, she welcomed it. The heat stoked her mood like embering coals, helped raise her anger to a fever pitch.

Now she didn’t hesitate. Dylan walked right up to the counter and, to stop herself from settling her knuckles in his face, gripped the edge with both hands as she asked, “What can I get you?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” Another grin, partnered with a wink. “I’ll have a Bud.”

This time, she didn’t care. Let him think he was in the clear. That he was too clever, too well-connected, too untouchable.

By the time she’d filled the beer glass and set it down on the counter, Dylan had made up her mind. She knew it as certainly as she knew her eyes were blue.

And that she’d never talk to Beck ever again.

An image became clear in her mind, a telescope twisting into focus. Beck’s death had marked her, but this day would make her. It might even redeem her. She understood what she had to do next.

Dylan didn’t know when. She didn’t know how. But she did know one thing for sure.

The thought flared bright, a neon sign at the back of her mind:

Peter Miles has to die.

Editorial Reviews

What happens when three women decide to avenge the murder of their best friend? In her riveting debut, Katie Collom explores what we owe the ones we love and how ordinary life can change in an instant. I couldn’t put down this thriller and was stunned by a plot twist that was a complete shock and yet made perfect sense.”—Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters

“Peter Miles Has to Die is a high-stakes thriller that asks what we’re willing to risk in order to get revenge. This twisty story of female friendship had me on the edge of my seat from the first page!”—Shea Ernshaw, New York Times bestselling author of A History of Wild Places

“Dark, twisty, clever, and worth every moment . . . Katie Collom’s debut is a stunner! What starts as a revenge story grows into a deep and unsettling look into the eyes of abuse, and asks the age old question—does an eye for an eye ever truly bring closure? A superb read.”—J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of A Very Bad Thing

“The title lured me in, but I stayed for a character-rich tale of revenge exploring the dark and fierce loyalty that binds women. How far would you go for your best friend? You’ll be asking yourself that from the first page to the last. You won’t see the clever ending coming.”—Julia Heaberlin, internationally bestselling author of We Are All the Same in the Dark

From the Publisher