Best Friends Forever

At the start of Hunt’s solid debut, two Jupiter, Fla., police detectives arrive at the home of Alice Campbell, the tale’s unreliable narrator, to question her about the death of Howard Grant, her best friend Kat’s financier husband. Three days earlier, Howard, an alcoholic and adulterer, fell from the second-story balcony of his and Kat’s mansion on upscale Jupiter Island. The police, who don’t think Howard jumped, interview Alice about her three-year friendship with Kat. Flashbacks chart Alice and Kat’s chance meeting at Kennedy Airport, Alice’s financial troubles, Kat’s broken marriage, and Kat’s sister-in-law’s warning to Alice that Kat uses people and discards them. Despite the unlikely pairing—the struggling suburbanite and the wealthy socialite—their relationship endures, until Alice’s arrest for Howard’s murder. The action builds to a huge reveal that leaves the reader wondering which of the two women is more twisted. Fans of psychological thrillers will be well satisfied. [em]Agent: Ethan Ellenberg, Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency. (Jan.) [/em]