Publishers Weekly
07/05/2021
In this busy psychological thriller from bestseller McCreight (A Good Marriage), Jonathan Cheung and three friends who attended Vassar College gather at Jonathan’s Catskills getaway to stage an intervention for a fifth friend, New York City gallery owner Keith Lazard. Ten years earlier, the five classmates concealed their role in a tragedy at Vassar. Shortly thereafter, Keith’s guilt-stricken girlfriend jumped off a bridge. Jonathan and the others hope to talk a still-spiraling Keith into rehab before he loses his gallery, but then Keith’s star artist shows up, scotching their plan. Additional complications include menacing contractors owed money by Jonathan’s fiancé, impatient mobsters to whom Keith is indebted, and anonymous threatening emails. Then the police find the crashed car of one of the classmates. The driver’s seat is empty, and the dead passenger’s injuries preclude easy identification. McCreight builds the suspense by shifting among a police detective’s investigation and the perspectives of the five friends. Not all the myriad plot twists hold water, but sinuous storytelling, escalating stakes, and an avalanche of bad decisions propel the tale to a gratifying if far-fetched conclusion. B.A. Paris fans will be pleased. Agent: Dorian Karchmar, WME. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
A brilliantly constructed puzzle of a novel — using a shifting kaleidoscope of unique voices, McCreight hands us all the pieces and forces us to assemble them into a shocking portrait of regret, grief, and dark loyalty.” — Julie Clark, author of The Last Flight
“Riveting. . . . An entertaining puzzle.” — BookPage
"What a pleasure to race through a novel so tightly written and expertly twisty! Kimberly McCreight takes us through a juicy labyrinth of lies and secrets among a privileged set of friends you’ll love to hate, and hate to love. Sharp, dark, and a great escape.” — Ashley Audrain, author of The Push
“Like other friend stories—Mary McCarthy’s The Group and the television show Friends—this one is about trust and betrayal, hate and love, and the group dynamics of people who were once held together by college but have gone their separate ways…. And the ending is a shocker.” — Denver Post
“Friends Like These is a masterclass in thriller writing. Perfectly plotted and full of genuine surprises, this book had me rapt from start to finish. Kimberly McCreight is a sensational writer, and with Friends Like These she is at the top of her game." — Cristina Alger, author of Girls Like Us
“Years’ worth of friendship, secrets, coverups and lies lead to one intensely satisfying, jaw-dropping conclusion in this expertly plotted novel by master of suspense, Kimberly McCreight. Friends Like These is sensational, and makes you wonder how well you can ever know even your closest friends.” — Mary Kubica, author of Local Woman Missing
“I was so thrilled to get an early look at Kimberly McCreight’s newest, Friends Like These. I flew through the book in a day. With twists and turns and secrets on every page, and an ending you WILL NOT SEE COMING, this one is utterly unforgettable.” — Sally Hepworth, author of The Good Sister
“Shrewd, insightful…. In this gripping standalone thriller, five self-centered friends who met in college are bound by guilt and fear dating back to an accidental death.” — Shelf Awareness
“McCreight artfully delivers a solid psychological thriller with a twistedly complex plot. Readers who enjoy unraveling the mystery through numerous viewpoints as in The Guest List, by Lucy Foley, or Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins, will be sure to enjoy.” — Library Journal
Julie Clark
A brilliantly constructed puzzle of a novel — using a shifting kaleidoscope of unique voices, McCreight hands us all the pieces and forces us to assemble them into a shocking portrait of regret, grief, and dark loyalty.”
BookPage
Riveting. . . . An entertaining puzzle.”
Mary Kubica
Years’ worth of friendship, secrets, coverups and lies lead to one intensely satisfying, jaw-dropping conclusion in this expertly plotted novel by master of suspense, Kimberly McCreight. Friends Like These is sensational, and makes you wonder how well you can ever know even your closest friends.
Ashley Audrain
"What a pleasure to race through a novel so tightly written and expertly twisty! Kimberly McCreight takes us through a juicy labyrinth of lies and secrets among a privileged set of friends you’ll love to hate, and hate to love. Sharp, dark, and a great escape.
Shelf Awareness
Shrewd, insightful…. In this gripping standalone thriller, five self-centered friends who met in college are bound by guilt and fear dating back to an accidental death.
Sally Hepworth
I was so thrilled to get an early look at Kimberly McCreight’s newest, Friends Like These. I flew through the book in a day. With twists and turns and secrets on every page, and an ending you WILL NOT SEE COMING, this one is utterly unforgettable.
Denver Post
Like other friend stories—Mary McCarthy’s The Group and the television show Friends—this one is about trust and betrayal, hate and love, and the group dynamics of people who were once held together by college but have gone their separate ways…. And the ending is a shocker.”
Cristina Alger
Friends Like These is a masterclass in thriller writing. Perfectly plotted and full of genuine surprises, this book had me rapt from start to finish. Kimberly McCreight is a sensational writer, and with Friends Like These she is at the top of her game."
Megan Miranda
"Full of dark secrets and surprising twists, A Good Marriage explores what lies beneath the surface of friendships, families, and communities. A captivating psychological thriller that gripped me from beginning to end."
Harlan Coben
A Good Marriage is a smart, provocative, insightful page-turner. I couldn’t put it down.
New York Times Book Review on A Good Marriage
The characters look as if their lives are perfect, but their greatest skill is their ability to conceal the adultery, substance abuse and financial ruin percolating underneath. . . . McCreight is particularly adept at parsing the small but telling details of life among Park Slope’s elite.
Washington Post on A Good Marriage
"What makes a good marriage – in fact and fiction? Kimberly McCreight takes a gimlet-eyed attempt at answering that question in the irresistible domestic drama, A Good Marriage."
Air Mail
If you were to transplant Big Little Lies (the TV series, not Liane Moriarty’s book) from Monterey, California … to Brooklyn’s Park Slope, it would look a bit like Kimberly McCreight’s A Good Marriage.… What lifts A Good Marriage above high-level chick-lit status is its legal-thriller aspect, which keeps the story churning urgently along.
New York Times Book Review
The characters look as if their lives are perfect, but their greatest skill is their ability to conceal the adultery, substance abuse and financial ruin percolating underneath…. McCreight is particularly adept at parsing the small but telling details of life among Park Slope’s elite.
Washington Post
"What makes a good marriage – in fact and fiction? Kimberly McCreight takes a gimlet-eyed attempt at answering that question in the irresistible domestic drama, A Good Marriage."
Washington Post
"What makes a good marriage – in fact and fiction? Kimberly McCreight takes a gimlet-eyed attempt at answering that question in the irresistible domestic drama, A Good Marriage."
Library Journal
09/24/2021
In the latest from New York Times best-selling author McCreight (Reconstructing Amelia; A Good Marriage), secrets and lies from an ill-fated college party shape the fate of a tight-knit circle of friends as they begin to establish their lives in Manhattan. Determined to confront Keith's growing drug addiction, Maeve, Stephanie, Jonathan, and Derrick plan an intervention at Jonathan's weekend house in the Catskills. With an unexpected guest and hostile encounters with the locals, everything goes disastrously wrong and now one of them is dead and one is missing. Detective Julia Scutt doggedly pursues every lead with her overbearing boss demanding that she solve the case quickly to prevent any bad publicity from the media or the intrusive true-crime podcasters. It doesn't help that the suspects' stories keep changing and certain clues remind Julia of her own sister's unsolved murder from years ago. VERDICT McCreight artfully delivers a solid psychological thriller with a twistedly complex plot. Readers who enjoy unraveling the mystery through numerous viewpoints as in The Guest List, by Lucy Foley, or Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins, will be sure to enjoy.
