by Rory Power
First published 2025
Nan stands at the river wearing the same clothes from a year ago. The town of Saltcedar has gathered for a memorial. Last summer, Nan took a boat out with her three best friends Luce, Edie, and Jane for one final swim. Only Nan came back that night. She told everyone the girls went ahead and vanished without a trace. But Nan knows the truth. She murdered all three of them in the canyons near their small town. Now Luce emerges from the water, alive and dripping. No one feels more shock than Nan, who remembers exactly how she killed Luce before turning on Edie and Jane. The return of her victim forces Nan to confront what she did and what it means that the dead can apparently come back. Power explores the toxic depths of friendship through a narrator who must reckon with her own capacity for violence.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Saltcedar
Period: Last Summer
288 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press
Content warnings: death, murder, violence