Friends and Liars by Kit Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos) sees a foursome of estranged friends reunite at a luxurious private Italian palazzo for an extravagant weeklong vacation to remember their fifth, heiress Clare Monroe. Clare was 21 when she drowned on New Year's Eve. Now she would be 27.
Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David gather for an itinerary organized (and paid for) by Clare's family, the famous and secretive Monroes of Hollywood. The friends still care for each other, but have been out of touch since that terrible New Year's Eve. Clare's tragic death is all bound up with secrets that each of them would rather not confront again--the lies and betrayals that contributed to her demise.
But, for various personal reasons, none is able to resist the invitation to return to the Palazzo Mella. Immediately, their uneasiness is intensified by the appearance of taunting "gifts" and notes left for them in the guest quarters. The message is clear: someone knows what happened on that New Year's Eve and has come for revenge. The old friends must band together to solve a compound mystery: Who knows what they've each done? Who is preying upon their guilt? What really happened that night, and who will pay for it now?
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. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia