College Friends Reunite After a Tragic Loss inFriends and Liars— See the Cover and Read an Excerpt! (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Kit Frick, ‘Friends and Liars’ cover.Photo:Carly Gaebe/Steadfast Studio; Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Carly Gaebe/Steadfast Studio; Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Kit Frickis introducing audiences to her latest project,Friends and Liars!

The Pittsburgh author, whose previous books include the 2020 YA novelI Killed Zoe Spanosand 2024’sThe Split, is back with a thriller that delves into the friendships and betrayals of a group of former college roommates holding onto a dark secret.

Friends and Liarsarrives on Dec. 2, 2025 via Atria, and PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the book’s cover, alongside an early excerpt of the forthcoming thriller.

Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Per a synopsis, the story follows Luca, Harper, Sirina and David five years after the death of Clare Monroe at her family’s Italian estate. While the group’s “desperate decision to conceal the truth destroyed their once-close bond,” they now must return to the Monroe’s lakeside palazzo for a “long-overdue celebration of life party.”

“Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David have barely settled into the idyllic estate with the rest of Clare’s family before they become targets of a series of unsettling occurrences,” the synopsis teases.

“Someone here knows the truth, and as the menacing taunts and threats escalate, it becomes swiftly clear that nothing is as it seems at the Monroe palazzo, and their secret — and their lives — are in danger.”

Read an exclusive excerpt below.

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Kit Frick.Carly Gaebe/Steadfast Studio

Carly Gaebe/Steadfast Studio

Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020

Los Angeles Times

Heiress’s Body Recovered from Lake Como

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Lake Como, Italy

THE PARTY AT THE VILLA

A single chilling wail erupts from the grand ballroom on Palazzo Mella’s ground floor, cutting through the whir of the choppers above. The cry sails through the wide oak doors, flung open to invite the summer breeze to mingle among the antique gilt chairs and heavy tapestries and Renaissance Revival–era statuary, and travels across the stone terrace and through the garden.

Finally, the sound reaches the jittery group gathered beneath the marble archways outside the palazzo’s guest villa. There are 14 at the memorial party, including the hosts — six Monroes, two friends so old and so dear they are nearly family themselves, and Clare’s four college ride-or-dies, two of whom have brought plus-ones.

But there has been a delay. Nearly half the guests are missing from the party.

And now, a scream.

The voice crying out is young, female. It takes the guests back to that horrible New Year’s Eve on the lake. To the voice they heard call out five winters ago, the night Clare drowned. To Clare’s body floating beneath a spray of fireworks, then sinking to the depths below.

Then a figure bursts through the open ballroom doors, shattering the fantasy. The woman streaks across the terrace and into the garden, where she collapses to the grass, party dress drenched in blood.

Hearts in their throats, champagne splashing to the flagstones, everyone runs.

source: people.com